CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Performance appraisal is a discussion and review of employees’ performance of given tasks and responsibilities globally. It is centered on results gotten by the employee in his/her job, not on the personality characteristics of the employee. Performance appraisal is an essential instrument for human resource management. It is a means for performance evaluation and also achieving performance enhancement among employees of an organization.

As a management activity which increases the chances of achieving organizational goals, performance appraisal makes it compulsory for employees of an organization to know what is expected of them, and the indicators in which the overall productivity will be measured in order to make certain of staff progress, goal accomplishment, and organizational growth.

Performance appraisal is a regular or systematic evaluation of the performance of an employee on his current job and also in relation to future jobs that he/she may be required to take up (Hartzell, 2006). It evaluates and measures the results of the performance of employees indicating their deficiencies and potentialities so that they can improve overtime.

A decent appraisal system is very important to the supervision of employees in an organization. The success of the organization depends mainly on a decent appraisal system. When there’s good appraisal system, those employees who contribute more will be effectively rewarded and they are likely to be promoted into positions of greater responsibilities (Stonner, Freeman & Gilbert, 2005).

Therefore, for any appraisal system to work effectively, the employees must understand it, feel it as fair, and must be work oriented enough to care about the results (Habibu, 1992). One approach that would help foster this understanding is for the employees to contribute in the system designed and be trained to some extent in performance appraisal.

The fundamental objective of performance appraisal is an organization is to increase the employees’ productivity. Therefore, performance evaluation provides adequate feedback on how employees are performing, by divulging them to knowledge and the result of their work; avenues for participating in the setting of tasks and goals; clear and attainable goals of the organization (Mullins, 1999).

        Performance appraisals (PA) have been used by organizations in order to evaluate employees’ performance. It has been argued that PA can be a powerful tool to motivate employees toward achieving organizational goals through its use in rewarding, promoting, developing and improving workforce capabilities (Davis & Newstrom, 1993).

The challenge nowadays is not only in hiring the best employee to perform a good job, but also in motivating current employees to enhance their performance and leverage the productivity of the organization (Nayana et al., 2011).

Despite PA is used in governmental organizations, there are different approaches to adopt based on either sector and/or culture (Najafi et al., 2010). Iqbal et al., (2014) state that governmental employees may not consider PA as a vital process as in private sector since annual incremental and period of promotions are fixed as well as no bonuses are awarding especially in some developing countries.

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Performance appraisal offers a good opportunity to properly recognize employee’s contributions and achievements to the organization, and to make sure that a strong relationship is established and maintained between reward and productivity.

Nevertheless, it has been observed that performance appraisal system in government institution is suffering some major defects which include lack of employees’ participation in setting organizational goals that explain the organizational expectations and goals, lack of feedback regarding performance appraisal results to employees.

Finally, several research has been carried out on the impact of performance appraisal on employee productivity in Nigeria breweries plc but not even a single research has been carried out on effect of performance appraisal on employment performance in government institution; a case study federal university Wukari (2012-2021).

1. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim and objectives of the study is to determine the effect of performance appraisal on employee performance in government institution. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1. to determine the factors affecting employee performance and its effect on performance appraisal in government institution.
2. to determine the effect of performance appraisal on employee performance in government institution.
3. to determine the extent to which performance appraisal affects employee performance in government institution.
4. to proffer possible solutions to the problems.
   1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.     What are the factors affecting employee performance and its effect on performance appraisal in government institution?

2.     What is the effect of performance appraisal on employee performance in government institution?

3.     What is the extent to which performance appraisal affects employee performance in government institution?

4.     What are the possible solutions to the problems?

1. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Ho:  Performance appraisal has no significant on employee performance.

Hi:   Performance appraisal has a significant on employee performance.

1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study on the effect of performance appraisal on employee performance will be of immense benefit to the entire federal university wukari in the sense that it will encourage institutions to develop and implement performance appraisal methods that would facilitate effective appraisal of the employees and hence providing opportunities to the organization in classifying performance targets, enhance employees performance, finding staff training needs and assisting employees on time management through proper planning and setting of deadlines. Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and knowledge to this field of study and basis for further research.

1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study on the effect of performance appraisal on employee performance in government institution is limited to federal university Wukari.

1. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

TIME CONSTRAINTS: One the challenges experienced by the researcher is the issue of time; the research will simultaneously engage in departmental activities like seminars and attendance to lectures. But the researcher was able to meet up with the deadline for the submission of the project.

FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: Every research work needs funding; however lack of adequate funds might affect the speed of the researcher in getting materials for completion of the project.

1. DEFINITION OF TERMS

Effect:     A change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.

Employee Performance: Is defined as how an employee fulfills their job duties and executes their required tasks

Government Institution:               Established and/ or fully maintained by the Government.

Performance Appraisal:          Performance appraisal is where a superior evaluates and judges the work performance of subordinates.