27-09-2013, 03:36 PM
PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS OF BANKING EMPLOYEES PRACTICE AND EFFECTIVENESS
Introduction:
Organizations are run by and through people. It is through people the goals are set and
objectives realized. The performance of an organisation is dependent upon the sum-total of
the performance of all its members. The success of an organisation will, therefore, depend on
its ability to measure accurately the performance of its members and use it objectively to
optimize them on most vital resources. This is where performance appraisals play an
important role. Nearly all organizations seek to monitor the performance of their members
through an evaluation system.
Performance appraisal system (PAS) has been described as a ―vehicle for creative
competitive advantage‖ for organizations (Longneck and Fink, 1999).Hence, performance
appraisal has remained an important topic of investigation among organizational researchers
because people have been identified as the source of competitive advantage
(Poon,2004).Nevertheless, there is evidence to indicate that there is wide spread
dissatisfaction with PAS across many industries(Fletcher,1992; Fletcher,2002;Strebler et
al.,2001)
In the current work culture, terms like performance appraisals, performance reviews,
and performance evaluation are universally scorned at and are usually dropped in usage. That
is because employees do not want to hear that they were less than perfect last year.
Even managers do not like these terms because they would not like to engage in unpleasant
arguments and lower the morale of employees resulting from such reviews. Bernadin and
Beaty (1984) emphasize the need for adequate control procedures in order to assure higher
levels of perceived trust in the appraisal process.
METHODOLOGY
A descriptive research design was applied. The approach was used because of the
need to obtain the employees‘ perception and experiences pertaining to the existing
performance appraisal system. Besides, the approach was found appropriate since the study
sought to explore where and why performance appraisal policy and practice were at odds. A
Structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of respondents for collecting primary
data. The questionnaire was simple in form with both open-ended and close-ended questions.
A survey on performance appraisal was conducted in eight different banks-three nationalized
banks (NB), three private sector banks (PB) and two foreign banks (FB).
Conclusion
Performance Appraisals are essential for the effective management and evaluation
of the employees. The results of the study indicate that there is scope for improvement in the
performance management systems of the banking sector. Performance Management systems
would be more suitable than traditional appraisal systems. Current Literature indicates that
not much has been done on the PMS of Financial Institutions in India.