Page 171 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

154 performance appraisal
permission. The staff management, respectively the superior, can access the results in-
directly if the feedback-receiver writes a summary report on the basis of the hard data,
which he or she then forwards. In any case, specific follow-up measures should be
decided in order to ascertain the project’s success.

CONCLUSIONS
A performance appraisal system can be a useful instrument for a company to develop
its employees and achieve its goals. Many organisations use it to define a flexible part
of their employees’ salary, often in combination with goal-setting. But to take full ad-
vantage of a performance appraisal system, some conditions have to be met otherwise it
is not efficient or can even cause damage.
Often, the management board does not set strategic goals, in which case, goals and
performance standards cannot be defined appropriately. Another problem is that the
results of the performance appraisal have seldom any consequences for the employee.
In this case the management of performance is introduced as a single measure and not
integrated into an overall personnel management concept. The appraisal can then have
negative effects on performance because the employees are frustrated. They learn not to
take goals seriously and develop an indifferent attitude to them. Thus, to fully benefit
from a performance appraisal system a careful implementation is necessary.

REFERENCES

Folger, R., Konovsky, M. A., & Cropanzano, R. (1992). A due process metaphor for performance
appraisal. Research in Organizational Behavior, 14, 129–177.
McCall, M. W., Lombardo, M. M., & Morrison, A. M. (1988). The lessons of experience: How
successful executives develop on the job. Lexington, Mass. Lexington Books.
Runde, B., Kirschbaum, D., & W¨ubbelmann, K. (2001). 360-degree Feedback—Hinweise f¨ur ein
best-practice—Modell. Zeitschrift f¨ ur Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie, 45, 146–157.
Scherm, M. (1999). 360-Grad-Feedback: Das Multiratersystem “benchmarks” von Lombardo und
McCauley (1996). Zeitschrift f¨ ur Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie, 43 (2), 102–106.
Taylor, M. S., Fisher, C. D., & Ilgen, D. R. (1984). Individual’s reaction to performance feedback
in organisations: A control theory perspective. Research in Personnel and Human Resources
Management, 2, 231–272.