DEDICATION

TO

BADANGA EFOUDEBE AGNES

NATHALIE EPSE MAKON

of late memory
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was able to see the day through the help of many people, full of good will
who sacrificed to different extents, their energy and time.

Great appreciation goes to our project director, Dr ZAMA Suzanne Angèle, Senior
lecturer in ENSET of Douala, for her valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning
and development of this research work;

To my supervisor, Mr MBONDE NSOULI Dimitri, lecturer in Enset of Douala, for his

patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work.

My special thanks are extended to:

- M. MAKON Rommel Erwin Oliveira

- Mr KANE Joris Hilaire
- My brother and sister for their moral and physical support
- Mr YONKEU Basil Emmanuel for his useful critiques and proofreading my work
- Mr MBANGUE MBANGUE Robert and my sons for my tolerating my repeated
absences
- My classmates of MIO5, for the feeling of solidarity and conviviality that carried us
throughout our training, as well as fruitful discussions.
- All the teaching staff of ENSET, for the training received ;
- All the staff members and administration of the selected enterprises for welcoming us in
their institution and the promptitude with which all my requests were granted.
 FOREWORD

Training at ENSET is a transitional step between student life and professional life. The main aim
of this step is to train teachers to teach in technical schools. It is divided in two divisions :

• The management techniques division which consists of the administrative techniques

department, STEG and ESF
• the industrial technology division comprising of electrical engineering, civil engineering,
computer engineering, mechanical engineering and the clothing industry and chemical
engineering.
The training duration varies from 1, 3 and 5 years. Each student teacher at the end of the course
must write a final study project (1st cycle) or a dissertation ( 2nd cycle) that he defends. This
research work which is related to the speciality or education aims at developing in the ENSET
student, future teacher, the spirit of initiative, the spirit of creativity and the tireless taste for
research. He must be able to raise a scientific or practical problem, make analysis, and propose
solutions, so called scientific added value. In line with this regulatory requirement, our study
project will consist of an analysis of a problem raised.

It is in this traditional educational requirement that we have made our choice on the topic
«Performance appraisal and employee engagement in SMEs: case of selected enterprises in
the town of Douala »
 The reader will not find a perfect document here, but only the result of an aspiring
researcher. Therefore we remain open to criticisms and suggestions that will improve its quality,
it can also help in the continuity of our research if need be.

LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
P A Performance Appraisal

PAS Performance Appraisal system

MBO management by objectives

BARS Behaviorally anchored rating scale

HR human resources

UWES

GPAC

HRM

ABSTRACT
RESUME
 SUMMARY
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................2
CHAPTER ONE: CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND OF PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.....................................................9
Section 1: Conceptual framework of performance appraisal systems..............................9
Section 2: Conceptual background of employee engagement...........................................31
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT...................................................38
Section 1: Presentation of theoretical juncture of performance appraisal and
employee engagement.......................................................................................................................38
Section 2: Presentation of theories...............................................................................................52
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Performance appraisal is one of the core functions of human resource development

(Hughes, 2019). Performance appraisal is a continuous process of evaluation to secure
information necessary for making correct and objective decisions on employees (Dale Yoder,
1934). Performance appraisal “means evaluating an employee’s current and/or past performance
relative to his or her performance standards” (Dessler, 2013). It is a “formal system of
reviewing and evaluation of individual or team task performance” (Torrington et al., 2017). The
performance appraisal involves a three-step performance appraisal process which is: “setting
work standards, assessing the employee’s actual performance relative to those standards, and
providing feedback to the employee with the aim of helping him or her to eliminate
performance deficiencies or to continue to perform above par” (Dessler, 2013). Organizational
goals and objectives cannot be achieved devoid of human resource contributions (Wilkinson et
al., 2017). The human resource efforts towards the organizational effectiveness are evaluated to
ensure that the set goals and objectives are met at the right time with the desired results. The
employee performance appraisal is done as part of the performance management system of an
organization. Meanwhile, the perception of employees is important in arriving at the point of
whether or not the process of performance appraisal is procedurally correct, just, ethical and or
fair (Hughes, 2019). This, of course, has several outcomes such as organizational performance,
employee commitment, employee job satisfaction, employee effectiveness, employee turnover
intention, and employee engagement among others.

Performance appraisal has many indicators like the clarity of the process, objectivity and
equality, its review nature, its ability to be a tool for development, feedback and the action plan
included (Jennifer Skinner, Ravonne Green, 2010). These indicators permit both managers,
employees, researchers and others to be able to assess the effectiveness of performance
appraisal systems in various enterprises irrespective of the system or blend of systems put in
place. The present work considers four indicators namely; clarity, objectivity and equality,
review nature and feedback. Performance appraisal system equally has determinants that can be
used by managers to justify the cost of establishing and operating a formal appraisal system.
These determinants include the following; workforce characteristics, the level of job control,
related HRM practices and the structural features of the establishment. These determinants
equally act as a guideline when it comes to designing the performance appraisal systems that
will be used in the enterprise.
 Controversy exists regarding the definition of employee engagement. There are
numerous definitions of the construct, but that they all agree that employee engagement is
desirable, has an organizational purpose, and has both psychological and behavioral facets in
that it involves energy, enthusiasm, and focused effort (Macey et al. 2008). Employee
engagement is “the individual's involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for
work” (Harter et al., 2002). Some authors view engagement as the opposite pole of burnout
(Leiter et al., 1998). Other pioneer authors define engagement as “an energetic experience of
involvement with personally fulfilling activities that enhance a staff member's sense of
professional efficacy” and consider it to be comprised of energy, involvement and efficacy
(Schaufeli et al., 2001).

Previous studies on performance appraisal systems point to the organizations' success

dependency on the level of employees’ engagement. For instance, reported that the association
between the human resource management functions such as performance appraisal and
employee engagement is significant in organizational success stories like those of companies
like Amazone and Axa (Jung et al., 2018). Human resource management practices are capable
of significantly improving the level of employee engagement and “could create a compelling
competitive advantage for organizations across the globe” (Shuck et al. 2011). For this
development and trend in the field of employee engagement, it has been suggested that human
resource management need “to go beyond the traditional roles and become a strategic partner in
businesses, focusing attention on engaging employees at deeper levels” (Bhowal et al. 2019).
The downward trend in employee engagement had been noticed and reported globally (Nel et al.
2019). The observation further confirmed the survey reports by Gallup (2018) who earlier
reported that the global level of employee engagement has been nose-diving since 2015 until
2017 when it picked up again. One of the factors responsible for the increase in employee
turnover and a decrease in the level of employee engagement was performance appraisal
(Hassan (2007) in Hughes (2019).

Bhowal and Saini (2019) had considered employee engagement as the “cornerstone upon
which rests a number of positive business outcomes such as productivity, improved bottom lines,
growth, customer satisfaction, employee retention and safety.” This assertion is verified by the
various empirical studies which have established links between human resource maintenance
practices such as performance appraisal and employee engagement globally. Such linkages
include study among Australian and US nurses that reported a significant influence of perceived
organizational support (POS), leadership, and teamwork on employee engagement (Brunetto et
al., 2013). Likewise in the UK, it was found out that there is a positive significant relationship
between perceived human resource management practices and employee engagement (Alfes et
al., 2013).

Contemporary research and practice have started taking Performance Appraisal as a part
of the overall PMS (Performance management system) and many have studied its effectiveness
in highly developed and advanced countries, which leaves a space for extension in other
developing economies like Cameroon. Iakovidou for instance, in his research on the impact of
performance appraisal on employee engagement studied the correlation between the two
concepts in Greece. He used a quantitative approach for this and his results showed that what
influences engagement most in the appraisal process is the relationship between the appraiser
and the appraisee (Iakovidou, 2016). Boachie-Mensah et al. analysed the same phenomenon in
Ghana but focusing on employee perception of the errors committed during the appraisal
process, and came out with the results that employees felt that the system was affected by
subjectivity and wished to be included in the formulation of criteria, performance standards and
objectives of the appraisal. It equally showed that most employees would feel more engaged if
they were given a feedback after appraisal (Boachie-Mensah et al., 2012). Ajibola studied the
link between performance appraisal and employee engagement but with tenure as a moderating
factor (Ajibola et al., 2019) leaving out other factors like remuneration and recognition. The
present study was undertaken in an aim to contribute to the literature available in the domain and
assess other factors like the leadership style and employee perception of the appraisal process.
Limunga on her part studied the effectiveness of performance appraisal on employee job
commitment (Limunga, 2017). She carried out a quantitative study on a sample of 100 persons
in four large companies of the South West region. However, SMEs were left out whereas they
constitute a great part of the Cameroun economy. The present study therefore seeks to fill this
gap by examining the influence of performance appraisal systems on employee engagement, but
we focus in some selected SMEs of the town of Douala.

The proper alignment of the organization's performance appraisal is essential to the

achievement of business goals and objectives. When human resource practices such as
performance management are aligned with the business objectives of the organization, the result
is always positive. The outcomes of such are high employee performance, high employee job
satisfaction, low employee turnover and an increase in the level of employee engagement.
Studies have demonstrated that performance appraisal increases the level of employee
engagement significantly (Shin, Jeong, & Bae, 2016).

During our stay in HOTEL LE SENTIER+ Bonaberi, we noticed that employees lacked
engagement in the execution of their daily tasks. They lacked incentive to work and diligence.
While many factors can account for this, we noticed that it is most due to the inadequate
performance appraisal system put in place. Employees are evaluated randomly and at the
discretion of the hotel manager, one would never tell how or when they would be evaluated,
whether twice a month or twice a year. Workers are not followed up in the execution of their
tasks, neither are they entitled to any form of appreciation when they do what is required of
them. No specific objectives are given to them. This has greatly reduced their implication to
work and the overall performance of the enterprise is greatly affected. There is little or no spirit
of initiative. Thus the lack of performance appraisal systems affects their engagement at work
and thereby, the overall performance and competitivity of the company. This gave rise to the
topic “Performance appraisal systems and employee engagement in the service industry: case of
selected enterprises in the town of Douala”

The problem raised in this study is the lack of engagement of employees at work due to
the absence of a performance appraisal system.

With the light of the above what is considered a good system of performance appraisal
does not seem to exist in some organisations in the town of Douala or what is there seem to be
inadequate (Limunga, 2017). The increasing rate of employee turnover and decreasing level of
employee engagement is considered as results of the poor or lack of performance appraisal
(Hughes, 2019).

Continuation of such trend will only increase the employee turnover intention and the
organization performance will be nose-diving and these trends eventually will have a grave
impact on the national economy and will go a long way to increase human capital flight away
from the country. Previous studies investigated the impact of performance appraisal on
organizational productivity, job satisfaction, employee productivity but without explaining the
role of performance appraisal mechanism on employee engagement (Kihama et al., 2019).
Given this, therefore, this study was undertaken to fill the gap. Consequent upon the foregoing,
the study was to investigate the influence of performance appraisal systems on employee
engagement among employees of selected institutions in the town of Douala.

Descriptive research design using a quantitative approach was used for this study. The
target population is made up of employees from 2 hotels, 2 heath centers and a recruitment
center. The sample size was determined with the use of Yamane (1967) sample determination
formula. With the use of simple random sampling technique, 205 samples were selected and a
questionnaire administered. The questionnaire was divided into three parts; the first part was
identification, the second was on performance appraisal and adopted and modified items from
Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) on employee engagement developed by Schaufeli
and Bakker (2006). A five point Likert scale was used for most of the questions, while open-
ended questions were used in the biographical section and on the indicators to control biased
responses from the respondents.

Mone and London (2010) suggest that “performance management, effectively

applied, will help you to create and sustain high levels of employee engagement, which
leads to higher levels of performance”.

Thus the general objective of this study is to investigate the role of performance appraisal
systems on employee engagement. To achieve this, more specific objectives have to be achieved
namely;

 To assess how the measures of performance influence the cognitive engagement of

employees in the selected companies

 To examine the effect of the frequency of appraisal on physical engagement of

employees and finally

 To assess the effects of perceived leadership style on the emotional engagement of

workers in the selected companies.

To this effect, the general research question of the present work is “what is the effect of
performance appraisal systems on employee engagement?

The specific questions are as follows:

 How do the measures of performance influence cognitive engagement of

employees in the selected companies?

 What is the effect of the frequency of appraisal on the physical engagement of

employees?

 And how does perceived leadership style affect the emotional engagement of
employees in these companies?

This piece of work is based on a general hypothesis which is:

Hg: Performance appraisal systems have a significant effect on employee engagement; and
three specific hypotheses:

Hs1: Measures of performance have a significant influence on the cognitive

engagement of employees in the selected companies.

Hs2: The frequency of appraisal has a positive effect on physical engagement of

employees.
 Hs3: Perceived leadership style significantly influence the emotional engagement of
employees in these companies.

The present work is divided into two parts. The first part, is made up of chapters one and
two presents the conceptual and theoretical background of the study respectively, added to
which is a literature review in chapter two. The second part, made up of chapters three and four
constitute the empirical background of the study. Chapter three explains the sampling and
sampling techniques of our work while chapter four presents the results and the interpretation of
those, coupled with suggestions for managers and researchers.
 PART ONE:

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

SYSTEMS AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Performance appraisal is the core of human resource management today, as it influences
decisions such as pay, work promotions and so on. It is therefore vital that every enterprise
today ought to have an efficient performance appraisal system. These concepts have been
greatly conceptualised in literature. In this piece of work we briefly summarise performance
appraisal systems and extend research in the domain to highlight areas for further research.

This part presents the theoretical analysis of performance appraisal and employee engagement.
It is divided into two chapters. The first one presents the conceptualization of the two concepts
and the second presents their theoretical correlation.
 CHAPTER ONE: CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND OF
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT

The monitoring of workers stands at the heart of the employment relationship. Getting
workers to exert effort, assigning individual workers to the most appropriate jobs, setting pay,
deciding which workers should be retained and which should be promoted all require that
management judge the performance of workers. This judgment requires learning about workers
productivity and the process of monitoring. In some establishments, this process may be
informal and in others it may be straightforward because of the nature of technology (individual
output can be observed). Yet, the most common approach to monitoring remains a formal
system of performance appraisal. In this chapter, we will bring clarifications in the definition
and evolution of both performance appraisal systems in section 1 and employee engagement in
section 2.

Section 1: Conceptual framework of performance appraisal systems

1.1 Definition, evolution of performance appraisal systems and related concepts

In order to tackle the concept of performance appraisal systems as treated in this piece of work,
it is important to define it as well as the related concepts and understand its evolution.

1.1.1 Some definitions of PA by authors and related concepts

Performance appraisal

There are many assertions when it comes to the concept of performance appraisal, many
of which are given by prominent authors and researchers in human resources and many others by
less prominent authors.

Performance appraisal is one of the important sub-functions of staffing in management.

Human behaviour is a complex phenomenon because no one can anticipate accurately what
exactly a man is going to do. The individual joins an organization to satisfy personal objectives.
But the organization also has its own goals, which need not to be in conformity with the
individual goals. If the goals of the individual and organization are extremely contradictory, a
conflict will arise which either result into suppression of human personality or a complete will
set back to his work.
 It is not desirable that individual’s personality be suppressed but at the same time
organization goals should also be achieved. To monitor this process of achieving organizational
goals, the performance of an individual needs to be assessed after a regular interval so that the
desired behaviour could be maintained. This will also help the organization to satisfy the needs
and the aspiration of the individual by providing him more facilities, improved working
condition and carrier advancement, as such Slabbert and Swanepoel define performance
appraisal;

According to Slabbert and Swanepoel (1990) – “Performance appraisal is a formal and

systematic process by means of which the relevant strengths and weaknesses of the employees
are identified, measured, recorded and developed.”

This definition implies that counselling should follow performance appraisal. It covers two
aspects, i.e., ‘tell and sell’ where the boss tells his subordinates where they stand. He adopts the
method of criticism and persuasion.

In the words of Edwin B. Flippo (1980), “Performance appraisal is the systematic,

periodic and an impartial rating of an employee’s excellence in matters pertaining to his present
job and his potential for a better job.”

Performance appraisal has been defined here as a systematic evaluation of personnel by

supervisors or others familiar with their performance. As a matter of fact, appraisals are
judgements of the characteristics, traits and performance. This is an objective way of judging the
relative worth or ability of a person in performing his task. This is essential for making many
administrative decisions used in a company management.

Decisions such as those relating to selection training, promotion, transfer, wages, salaries
etc., may be well based on performance appraisal. Also, it helps in personnel research. The
appraisal methods that are usually followed enable the management to judge the relative worth
or ability of an employee in the performance of his task and identify the performers and non-
performers of assigned tasks. While appraising performance of an employee, a difficulty arises
as to what aspects of performance have to be appraised. When the job is clearly defined, it is not
difficult to identify performance measures but in case of a broad definition of job; the
identification of performance measures becomes difficult. Determining criteria for appraisal at
the lower levels of an organization does not pose problem as the jobs there are specific, but
higher up the hierarchy, when jobs are more complex and clear cut, tangible standards of
performance are difficult to specify. To tackle that difficulty, performance appraisal seeks to
evaluation of worth and quality of merit. P.A should measure both performance in
accomplishing goals and plans and performance as a manager. It is therefore the evaluation of
present performance and future capabilities.

To this effect, Alford and Beatty (2007) have defined it as the evaluation or appraisal of
the relative worth to the company of a person’s services on his/her job.

PA is also a systematic, periodic and so far as humanly possible an impartial rating of an

employee’s excellence in matters pertaining to his/her present job. Thus, performance appraisal
is a continuous activity. The management should plan it in a systematic and orderly manner. It
must be conducted by some trained and experienced experts. If organised and operated carefully,
it eliminates the chances of personal prejudices and subjectivity in the appraisal. Systematic
appraisals are instrumental in boosting the morale of the employees and also enabling them to
know where they stand. The first step is to clarify what is expected of the employee. This can be
done by identifying significant job segments and developing standards of performance. The
second step is to appraise performance and to discuss it in an appraisal interview. At the
conclusion of the interview, a performance improvement plan can be developed. On-the-job
coaching is necessary to help the employee improve his performance. The first step is repeated
on whatever time schedule is established by the organization.

In the words of Dale Yoder, “Performance appraisal includes all formal procedures used
to evaluate personalities and contributions and potentials of group members in a working
organization. It is a continuous process to secure information necessary for making correct and
objective decisions on employees.”This definition seeming more complete shall be what we
shall retain in this work as definition for PA.

Absolute standards of performance appraisal

This means that performance of employees is compared to a standard, and their

evaluation is independent of any other employee (Dessler, 2013).

Relative standards of performance appraisal

With this method of appraisal, the performance of individuals is compared against that of
other individuals.

Performance

According to the Business Dictionary, it is the accomplishment of a given task measured

against pre-set known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost and speed. In a contract,
performance is deemed to be the fulfilment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the
performer from all liabilities under contract.
 Performance here is how well a worker carries out his activities and performs his tasks at
work.

Employer

As the Business dictionary, an employer is a legal entity that controls and directs a
servant or worker under an express or implied contract of employment and pays (or is obliged to
pay) him or her salary or wages in compensation.

An employer according to this study is someone or a business that employs someone to

work for him or her in exchange for salary or wages.

Employee

An employee is an individual who works part time or full time under a contract of
employment, whether oral or written, express or implied, and has recognised rights and duties.
He is also, referred to as a worker (Limunga, 2017).

In the present study, an employee is someone who works for another or a company in
exchange for wages or salary.

Feedback

According to Mirriam-Webster dictionary, feedback is helpful information or criticism

that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve a performance, product, etc.

Feedback is in this study, information about someone’s performance of a task at work

which is used as basis for improvement.

Small and medium size enterprises

A small enterprise is an enterprise with 6-20 employees and with a revenue between 15-
250 millions FCFA; a medium size enterprise has between 21-100 employees and revenue
greater than 250million and greater than or equal to3billions FCFA (RGE-2, 2016).

A blend of these characteristics will therefore be used throughout this work to refer to
SMEs.

1.1.2 History and evolution of performance appraisal systems

 Although the interest for PA has increased recently, the practice of formally evaluating
employees has existed for centuries. As early as the third century A.D, Sin Yu, an early Chinese
philosopher, criticized a biased rater employed by the Zei dynasty on the grounds that “ the
Imperial Rater of Nine Grades seldom rates men according to their merits but always according
to his likes and dislikes” (Patten 1977). In 1648, the Dublin (Ireland) Evening Post allegedly
rated legislators using a rating scale based on personal qualities (Hackett 1928). The first
industrial application of merit rating was probably made by Robert Owen at his cotton mills in
New Lanark, Scotland, in the early 1800s. Wooden cubes of different colors indicating different
degrees of merit were hung over each employee’s work station. As employee performance
changed, so did the appropriate wooden cube. The merit rating or efficiency rating in the federal
civil service has been in place since at least 1887 (Petrie, 1950).

One impetus to the development of performance appraisal in U.S industry can be traced
to the work of industrial psychologists at Carnegie-Mellon University and heir early work in
salesman selection and “man-to-man rating form based on trait psychology (Scott et al., 1941).
The man-to-man rating form was later used by the army in WW1 to assess the performance of
officers. PA probably began in the US industry (Bellows et al.,1954) when an army general
Lewis Cass submitted to the war department an evaluation of each of his men using such terms
such as “a god-natured man” or “ knave despised by all.” (Murphy, 1995).

Although the man-to-man ranking by department is not frequently used in industry or in

appraising performance, it was an effective way of determining layoffs. In fact, in the late 1960s
it was used by many companies that experienced cutbacks in government contracts to make
layoffs and retention decisions (Murphy, 1995). The technique was known as the ‘totem
approach’ to personnel cutbacks. After WW1, many of the individuals associated with the work
of the man-to-man appraisal secured by the contributions of industrial psychologists to army
research. Despite early criticisms, the graphic rating scale increased in popularity (Scott et al.,
1941). Just prior to and during WWII, the army again sought assistance from psychologists to
improve its rating system. The outcome of these research efforts included the forced-choice
technique and the critical incident approach to merit rating. Appraisal of industry employees
became widely practiced until after WWII.

By the early 1950s, appraisal was an accepted practice in many organisations. In 1962,
PA was conducted in 61% of the organizations surveyed (Spriegel, 1962) and typically top
management was exempted from such ratings.

1.2 Dimensions of performance appraisal

Performance appraisals generate a great deal of anxiety and suspicion. Anecdotal evidence
suggests that both employees and managers perceive performance appraisals as achieving a rare
synthesis of ubiquity, futility and inevitability5 (Johnson, 2004). Although some apprehension at
the thought of being formally evaluated is understandable, the unfortunate negative connotations
surrounding PA are due to a misunderstanding of their purpose and outdated or inappropriate
processes. When used correctly, Pas can be used to benefit individuals as well as organizations
by highlighting needed improvements in goal setting, training opportunities and more efficient
use of HR. Dimensions of PAS include measures of appraisal, frequency of appraisal and the
perceived leadership style or who evaluates. (Bayo-Moriones, Alberto et al., 2011)

1.2.1 Measures of appraisal

In the context of the present work, measures of appraisal shall refer not specifically to the
processes but to the manner in which the process or system chosen or implemented by an
organisation is being used. To this effect and though the list of indicators developed by Ravonne
Green et al. does not limit itself to this, we considered four indicators of the measures of
appraisal: clarity, objectivity and equity, review in mature and feedback (Jennifer Skinner,
Ravonne Green, 2010).

1. Clarity of appraisal process

Employers should make the performance appraisal process as transparent as possible.

Familiarity with the process helps to alleviate anxiety and to increase the effectiveness of any
tool that is used. Secrecy and ambiguity can forster mistrust between a supervisor and
employees, and suggests that the purpose of the PA is to “catch” the employees in a mistake and
dole out punishments. Free access to the forms, questions and style associated with the process
should be granted to all employees. Employees should have the opportunity to provide input in
formatting the evaluation and restructuring the process in order to ensure that the standards for
success are both objective and attainable. Involving employees in the process generates an
understanding of its true purpose and encourages willing participation. It might not always be
easy for non practitioners to give the specific name of the appraisal system or measure being
used on them in their organization but still, because or when the process is clear, objectives
known and can be freely discussed,

2. Objectivity and Equity

“When employees find themselves being evaluated by managers whom they know have broken
the rules, the entire process is little more than a charade”(Boyd, 2005).
 It is critical that performance standards be the same for all levels of employees. Managers
should be the first to demonstrate adherence to policy as a sign of acceptance of accountability.
Management by objectives allows for measurable standards to be set which are not subject to the
personal opinions of the appraiser (Jennifer Skinner, Ravonne Green, 2010). Objective standards
prevent employees’ previous PA, whether good or bad, to assess the present. Predetermining
objectives for every job title and employee hzlps to ensure that appraisers are properly trained in
performance appraisal techniques. Appraisers need to feel that they are being held to and
evaluated according to fair and equitable standards.

3. Review nature

Nothing that is discussed in the appraisal should be new to the employee. “I don’t think
there should be any surprises documented in a performance evaluation-If someone did
something that could have been done better in some way, I’d be crummy manager is I surprised
them with that news six months and even six days after the fact.”(Smith, 2005 in Ravonne et al.,
2010). Saving problems and issues until an end of the year review wastes the opportunity to
address and resolve these issues at their inception in a much less confrontational manner. Any
issues or compliments that have been raised during the year should be documented and should
become part of the appraisal process. Providing continuous feedback, rather than a single nerve-
wracking session, highlights the performance partnership between managers and employee.
Consistent feedback also provide employees the chance for continuous improvement, and
regular communication contributes to a positive work environment. The PAS being inadequately
used in Hotel le sentier +, workers are often confronted to similar issues where they might be
called upon to ‘justify’ an action that might have been reported so long ago that they do not even
recall it. In such a case, PAS sounds more like a trap than anything else and certainly no
advantage can be gotten from it.

4. Feedback

In a well-rounded and healthy organisation, the appraiser should ask for employee
feedback both on their own performance and that of the organization (Jennifer Skinner, Ravonne
Green, 2010). Employees are not working in a vacuum, and one of the major criticisms about PA
is the way they do not usually take into account the ways in which environment affects
employee performance (Johnson, 2004)

It is important that PA are used as an evaluative tool in contexts rather than in an

artificial realm in which employees are solely to blame for problems. The organization itself can
benefit greatly from self-appraisal. Appraisal is a chance to brainstorm about ways to better
accomplish the goal of the organization.

Frequency of appraisal

Another significant feature of PA is the frequency of assessment. The timing of appraisal

should be carefully taken into consideration, since frequency could affect the results of the
process. For example, a high rating frequency pursued increases evaluation accuracy as well as
its perceived fairness and worker satisfaction. The aim pursued of the performance assessment
process may influence its timing. Hence in many organizations is carried out annually, since the
administrative decisions based on the appraisal results are taken yearly. This is the case of the
pay increases or the employment promotions. In contrast, evaluations whose objective is to
provide employees with feedback will be performed more often. There are also organizations in
which the frequency of performance evaluation depends on the tasks carried out by a worker and
the nature of work, since the type of work determines if the results are observed in the short,
medium or long-term.that sf the PA process. In Interstis Cameroon, employees are evaluated at
the end of every period or shift. This implies that they are evaluated on a very regular basis
(approximately 3months). This makes employees more confident in the appraisal process.

Who evaluates performance

When designing a system of appraisal, the issue of who will performa the evaluation is a
key concern. This person is frequently an employee’s immediate superior (Murphy et al, 2000),
but a manager at a higher level may carry out this task as well. In companies with a formal HRM
framework, evaluation could be carried out by a person from the human resource management
department. In some contexts, subordinates, peers or even customers provide useful information
on certain aspects of workers performance: subordinates are in a good position to observe
leadership abilities, peers may be able to evaluate interpersonal relationships; and customers can
assess the quality of service. Since appraisal is often aimed at rating various attributes of a
worker’s performance, evaluation from different sources is commonly required (Bohlander et al.
2009)

1.2.2 Dimensions of performance appraisal

Evaluations of worker performance are used to move a worker between firms, to move a
worker between jobs within a firm and as part of eliciting high effort often in conjunction with
pay decisions (Lazear 1998). From these basic functions, one can hypothesize about the
circumstances in which formal evaluation will likely generate substantial benefits and so justify
the costs of establishing and operating such a system. These circumstances can be seen as falling
into four broad groupings: workforce characteristics, the level of job control, related HRM
practices and the structural features of the establishment.

Workforce Characteristics

Past theoretical work suggests that the benefits of appraisal are likely to be greatest when
the workforce is composed of shorter-tenure workers. This follows from several lines of logic.
First, workers with longer expected tenure can be motivated by deferred compensation (Lazear
2000), the purpose of which is to raise the cost to workers of dismissal for low effort and so
reduce the need for extensive monitoring. Second, longer-tenure workers are likely to have
developed substantial human capital specific to the employer, making it less likely that their
current pay will be below their value to rival firms. This reduces the chance that valuable
workers will be taken away by other firms and so reduces the need to monitor. Finally,
evaluations are more important early in a worker’s tenure for purposes of determining ability (as
opposed to achievement) and job assignment. Thus, a workforce with many workers early in
their tenure is more likely to be subject to performance appraisal, all else equal. Workers and
expect to retain them.

Job Control

In order for a system of performance appraisal to create productive incentives, workers

must be able to alter the level of their performance in response to an appraisal (Heneman 2004).
Put differently, it is most sensible to monitor performance when workers are able to increase
their work effort. In those circumstances in which team production, say on an assembly line, is
monitored by a machine, a formal appraisal system will yield few benefits. Instead, formal
appraisal will yield benefits when each worker has substantial scope in determining their tasks
and effort levels and the results of these choices are not immediately obvious.

The formal appraisal system may be part of a broader system of closer supervision and
direction.

HRM Practices

There exists research demonstrating that groups of HRM practices occur together (Jirjahn
2002). Internally consistent bundles of HRM practices have been associated with greater firm
level performance (Kato and Morishima 2002). While the set of practices that constitute bundles
is contested, it is common for researchers to consider the role of performance appraisal, training
of workers, job redesign, joint consultative committees and individual performance related pay
as part of an HRM bundle. The redesign of jobs serves to renew the importance of the allocation
of workers across jobs and increases the value of performance appraisal. This again picks up the
logic that the longer a worker is in a specific job, the smaller are the benefits from routine formal
appraisal.

Structural Factors

The operation of a formal appraisal system is likely to be subject to extensive

economies of scale (Brown and Medoff 1989). Thus, as the size of the firm — as measured by
number of workers — increases, the per capita cost of appraisal declines. This, in turn, increases
the net benefits of performance appraisal and so the incentive to adopt it. Moreover, larger firms
may have longer chains of command between the decision makers and front line workers
making a formal process of evaluation more valuable. Thus, we anticipate larger firms are more
likely to have performance appraisal. We also include a measure of the labour cost as a share of
all costs assuming that the scale economies are more likely to be overcome when labour cost is
important for firms of the same size. The larger the organization, the greater the problem of
internal control and the response is often the managerial division of labour, specializing the tasks
of managers. The appointment of specialists can also be a response to the onset of particular
problems, including the need to ensure appropriate levels of worker productivity. Further, the
appointment of specialists has been associated with the standardization and formalization of
industrial relations and human resource practices (Turner et al. 2006).

Therefore, we anticipate that establishments with HRM professionals will be

more likely to have a performance appraisal system in place for their non-managerial workers
(Isaac 2001). On the other hand, its use for basic job assignment or retention decisions may not
be as strongly resisted. We also include a set of occupational and industry controls in order to
control for basic differences flowing from technology.

1.3 Types of performance appraisal systems

There are many methods that organizations can use to appraise performance. The most
appropriate approach would depend on the nature of the business and the different roles in the
organization. It would also depend on how much time and resources are available for the
exercise and the objectives for undertaking it in the first place. In this article, we will explore a
variety of traditional and modern appraisal systems, their strengths and their limitations.

1.3.1 Traditional performance appraisal systems

The following are the different types of conventional methods of employee appraisal:

1. Checklist Method
 The evaluator is given a checklist containing a list of statements or questions about
various traits of the employee. Each statement or question is required to be rated merely as
“Yes” or “No.” The same issue or comment may be framed differently and may be repeated
more than once in the checklist. This indicates the consistency of the evaluator’s responses.

A more recent version of this method requires that each statement or question be
assigned a specific weight depending on its importance. Some items may be weighted equally
while some may be weighted more than others. Based on the answers and the associated load, a
score is calculated.

Table 1: advantages and disadvantages of checklist method

Disadvantages of Checklist Method Advantages of Checklist Method
This method, however, is impractical in larger organizations It is an easy exercise for the evaluator
where there are a variety of job roles. as it does not require too much thought.

Creating a checklist for every part may prove to be a very time- The evaluator does not have to go into
consuming task. It will lead to a considerable investment in terms any details to justify answers, which
of time, effort and even cost. saves a lot of time and effort

The options of “Yes” and “No” can be very limiting. An It is an easy exercise for the evaluator
employee may display a particular trait/behaviour most of the as it does not require too much thought
time but may have failed to do so on some occasions as well.

It is difficult to understand why a particular response may have

been selected and what was the thinking process behind.

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2. Critical Incidents Method

The evaluator’s ratings are based on the employee’s response to critical incidents. The
evaluator maintains a log of all the essential events that have occurred during the evaluation
period and the employee’s reaction to that incident. Based on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness
of the response, a rating is provided. Flanagan and Burns developed this technique.
For example, an airline runs out of a particular type of meal on the plane while operating a
specific sector. Customers are annoyed. This is a critical incident and employees may respond
differently to the same event. One flight attendant tries to appease a customer by apologizing
profusely and offering alternatives. Another flight attendant does not do anything to comfort the
customer and leaves the customer annoyed.

Advantages of Critical Incidents Method

  It measures an employee’s performance based on actual behaviour to critical situations
and does not focus much on the personality of the employee. One might say that this
method measures what matters most.

Disadvantages of Critical Incidents Method

 Evaluators are more prone to provide ratings based on events that may have occurred
closer to the end of the evaluation period and may not remember much about the
employee’s performance during the earlier part of the evaluation period.
 Maintaining logs for each employee, especially in a large organization can be quite
challenging and time-consuming. The evaluator may forget to note a particular incident.
 More importantly, this method is susceptible to subjective judgments on the part of the
evaluator, about the criticality of an event and what constitutes “good” or “bad”
behaviour.

3. Forced Distribution Method

This is a method that has been widely used in large organizations since the late 1990s.
General Electric first used it in the 1980s. Tiffen introduced it. It assumes that employee
performance conforms to a standard distribution curve or a bell-shaped curve as it is commonly
known. In other words, it believes that employee performance conforms to a normal statistical
distribution, i.e., 10, 20, 40, 20 and 10 percent.

It was introduced to eliminate an evaluator’s tendency to rate most employees highly. It is

based on the principle that in any organization some employees may perform exceedingly well
compared to others, some would play reasonably well, and some would not be able to
accomplish nearly as well as the others. All employees cannot act similarly. All employees are
required to be slotted across three categories of performance- high, average and poor- on the bell
curve. Those rated highly usually receive rewards, promotions and other kinds of recognition.
Those rated poorly are typically put on performance improvement plans or terminated. They
may not receive bonuses or salary increments.

Table 2: advantages and disadvantages of forced distribution method

Advantages of Forced Distribution Disadvantages of Forced Distribution Method:

Method:
The advantage of this method is that it is While this is a popular method and companies such as Wipro,
simple. It is mainly considered suitable Infosys and ICICI have been known to use it, and it is often
for organizations with large workforces. questioned whether the bell curve is an appropriate
representation of human behaviour.
It has limited scope for bias on the part It is criticized for dehumanizing employees and treating them
of the evaluator. like machines. It is also said that this system unnecessarily pits
employees against each other.

It may encourage healthy competition It is not a very transparent method of performance evaluation, as
among employees. the evaluator’s reasons for slotting the employees into either
category may not be clear.

Source: our care

This method is criticized for serving an older and outdated definition of management. Microsoft,
Google, and Adobe have ditched this method in favour of other ones.

4. Straight Ranking Method

One of the oldest and simplest forms of formal performance evaluation, this method requires
evaluators to rank all the employees from the highest to the lowest, according to their
performance and they are worth to the organization. It is used to let employees know where they
stand in comparison to their peers. Those that are highly ranked receive may be rewarded with
promotions, bonuses and other forms of recognition. Those who rank poorly may be put on
intensive performance improvement programs or may be terminated.

Table 4: Advantages and disadvantages of straight ranking method

Advantages of Straight Ranking Method: Disadvantages of Straight Ranking Method:
This method can be useful to identify the employee of the The limitation of this method is that it does
month. It may be used to determine candidates for not account for the complex nature of
promotions or rewards. For example, an organization may human beings and the fact that human
use this method to rank their salespersons according to the behaviour varies from person to person.
sales that they made.

In the event of a layoff, it may help determine which More importantly, the reason for receiving a
employees should be retained and which ones could be laid certain rank may not be apparent to an
off. employee as no reasoning is typically
provided for the ranking.

It can also be used as a motivational tool, to let employees It does not give a person much insight into
know how their performance rates in comparison to their how he or she can improve their
colleagues in a similar role. performance.

Source: our care

5. Rating Scale

This is one of the most traditional forms of employee evaluation, and it is said that this
method is used even today by organizations such as Dell and Airtel. However, today this method
has been updated to suit more complex business environments. However, we will discuss that
later.
 Traditionally, based on this method, employees may be rated typically from 1 to 10, 1 being
the lowest and 10 being the highest or various performance parameters, such as the quality of
their output, attendance, reliability, professionalism, etc. A score is calculated based on the
ratings and awarded to each employee. The score will then determine the overall performance of
the employee.

Advantages of Rating Scale:

 The advantage of this method is that it easy to conduct and can be applied to most job
roles.
 Organizations can mainly use this method to quickly obtain feedback from customers
about their interaction with their employees

Disadvantages of Rating Scale:

 There is scope for subjectivity here. While seven may be “average” to someone, it may
mean “good” to someone else. Everyone may not be on the same page regarding what
each rank stands for unless it is communicated.

6. Graphics Rating Scale Method

Also known as the Liner Rating Scale method, performance appraisal forms are printed out,
that list various performance traits of an employee, such as consistency, attendance,
dependability, etc. A five-point scale may be used. Ratings can be based on numbers such as 1-
5, 1 being the lowest and 5, the highest. However, a more conventional approach is using more
detailed performance characteristics ranging from “Unsatisfactory” to “Outstanding” and
“Rarely” to “Always.”. For example, when asked the rate the knowledge of an employee, an
employer may have to choose from the following options:

“Poorly informed about work duties,” “Occasionally unsatisfactory,” “Can answer most
questions about the job,” “Understands all phases of the job,” “Has in-depth knowledge about all
aspects of the job.”

In this manner, each question may have different rating values. A score for the employee
is then calculated based on the ratings received. Organizations such as Maruti Suzuki have been
known to use this method.

Advantages of Graphics Rating Scale Method:

  This method is excellent in understanding the various traits of the employee concerning
multiple aspects of the job.

Disadvantages of Graphics Rating Scale Method:

 This method can be open to biased ratings unless a reason is required to justify each
rating.

7. Forced Choice Method

In this method of employee appraisal, the evaluator is given a set of statements, some of
them positive and some of them negative. They are required to rate how much a statement
applies to the individual that they are evaluating. In some cases, they are just given two options-
“True” or “False” to choose from, to convey the validity of the positive or negative statement.

The statements may carry varying levels of weight depending on their importance. There
may be scores associated with the comments. This is not made known to the evaluator. They are
simply required to provide their responses to the statements. The HR team determines the final
rating based on the score. J. P. Guilford developed this method.

Example of these statements are:

Positive Statement: The employee can be depended upon to finish the assigned task on time.

Negative Statement: The employee does not understand instructions well.

Advantages of Forced Choice Method:

 This is a more objective approach to evaluating employee performance as the statements

are pointed and direct and do not leave room for any ambiguity.
 Also, the evaluators are not aware of the score or the weight of the several statements.
The final rating is arrived at by the HR team.

Disadvantages of Forced Choice Method:

 A significant problem with this method is that it may be a very time-consuming process
to create such evaluation forms for a large organization with a variety of job roles and
levels.

1.3.2 Modern methods of appraisal

Listed below are the current methods of employee appraisal:

 1. Management by Objectives (MBO) Method:

Conceived by the legendary Peter F. Drucker in 1954, in his book ‘The Practice of
Management,’ he called this concept “Management by Objectives and Self Control.” Douglas
McGregor further endorsed it with a few improvements. Organizations rapidly adopted this
approach, and it has been reinvented several times over the years. It has come a long way since it
was first introduced. It remains one of the most popular methods of performance appraisal even
today. It is not just a method of performance appraisal but a management system in itself.

MBO was born from the need to overcome the challenges of traditional appraisal
methods, that were believed to be not very collaborative, gave limited employee control and
were heavily susceptible to the biases and subjectivity. McGregor also pointed out that MBO
takes away much of the focus from the personal traits of the employee and focuses more on the
employee’s actual performance.

The process of MBO can be broadly explained in these steps:-

a. Define Organizational Goals

Organizations evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and decide
what they want to accomplish in a certain period. In this way, they define organizational goals.

b. Define Employee Objectives

Based on the goals of the organization, the manager and the employee consult with each
other and jointly set individual performance goals for the employee. These goals are meant to be
specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. They are also commonly known as
SMART goals. The manager and the employee then agree on the purposes and document them.
They agree on the performance standards that would form the criteria for measuring the
employee’s performance concerning goal achievement.

c. Performance Review

The manager and the employee meet periodically, say quarterly, to review the progress.
Challenges are identified, and steps to overcome them are established.

d. Providing Feedback

At every performance review, the employee is given feedback on his or her performance.
Employees learn what they are doing right and what they can do better to achieve the goals that
have been defined before the end of the evaluation period.

e. Performance Appraisal
 At the end of the evaluation period, the achievements of the employee are measured. A
rating is awarded to the employee based on what he or she has managed to achieve. Joint goal-
setting and ongoing feedback and review are the essences of MBO.
Table 5: advantages and disadvantages of MBO method
Advantages of MBO Method :
The emphasis is on the performance and not the
personal traits of the employee.
It can be an excellent team-building exercise.
Employees fulfill individual goals to achieve team
objectives which in turn meet organizational objectives.
The entire organization works together as a team
towards the achievement of common objectives.
The manager and the employee have more meaningful
exchanges. The system of ongoing review and feedback
allow the manager to coach and counsel the employee.
The manager and the employee communicate
effectively and more often.
There is limited scope for any role conflict or any
ambiguity. Lines of authority, responsibility, and
accountability are clear.
When employees are a part of the goal-setting process,
they are bound to be more motivated to work towards
them due to an increased feeling of ownership.
Employees learn self-control. They know what their
objectives are and what they need to do. They are in a
position to be in more control of their performance.
This method aims to build a performance-driven
culture. Clear performance expectations, regular
feedback, a better relationship with the management
Disadvantages of MBO Method:
Setting measurable targets and particular
objectives may not be possible for all kinds of
jobs. For example, they may not apply to blue-
collar workers.
It is the high-level executives that take to this
method quickly as they are more invested in the
growth of the organization. Operational-level
employees may not show an interest in this
activity.
This is a very time-consuming process and
requires a lot of effort. Goal-setting and regular
performance reviews need a lot of time and
patience.
This system will not work unless the
organization, the management, and all the
employees are committed to making it work.
Lack of commitment from any one of them will
render the whole process to be useless.
This system also tends to fail because more often
than not there is a lack of complete trust between
the manager and the employee
Setting measurable targets and particular
objectives may not be possible for all kinds of
jobs. For example, they may not apply to blue-
collar workers.
and fair evaluations are bound to make employees more
productive.

2. Behaviourally-Anchored Rating Scale (BARS):

Every job role has some essential tasks. There is a full range of behaviour that can be
expected from a group of employees that perform those tasks. These behaviours are rated for
each employee. They are anchored to points on a rating scale which may indicate the character
of the response. Examples of such traits would be, “Outstanding,” “Excellent,” “Good,”
“Average” or “Unsatisfactory.”

For example, an employee is required to file all documents received from new joiners in
the appropriate files. The BARS evaluation for this task could be-

a. Outstanding Performance: The papers are presented immediately upon receipt.

b. Excellent Performance: The documents are filed within an hour of arrival.
c. Good Performance: All articles are submitted on the same day.
d. Average Performance: Has to be reminded at least one to do the need.
e. Unsatisfactory Performance: Claims to have filed the papers even when they have not
been submitted.

Table 6: advantages and disadvantages of BARS

Advantages of BARS Method: Disadvantages of BARS Method

The numerical ratings are Employees know exactly what is expected of them and can
straightforward and not open to much immediately implement corrective steps.
individual interpretation.

It eliminates the scope of bias. One may miss out on covering the full range of possible
behaviours, which may confuse evaluators.
. It can be challenging and costly to create one for every role within
the organization.

This method is optimally centred on Creating a BARS instrument is a time-consuming process

the behaviour of the employee.
Gathering data regarding critical incidents and making a careful
note of the various types of reactions can be a chore and managers
may become careless about it over time.

Source: our care

3. Assessment Centres

Typically, assessment centres are used to gather a group of employees from the middle
management to senior management levels and put them through various job-related simulations
over 2-3 days. They may include psychometric tests, interviews, group discussions, in-basket
exercises, and presentations. These assessments may be carried out by a group of evaluators
consisting of senior managers, psychologists, and HR professionals.

The assessment centre aims to identify employees that have the potential to take on the
executive or supervisory roles. The rigorous method of appraisal is used to measure managerial,
technical and behavioural competencies of high-potential individuals in the organization. They
are mostly assessed on conflict management, strategic planning, their organizational skills and
also their interpersonal skills, among others.

In the 1930s, Germany used this method to appraise army officers. In India, Crompton
Greaves and Hindustan Lever, have been known to use this method. Many organizations are
waking up to the benefits of an assessment, and they are growing in popularity every day. They
may conduct them in-house or choose to outsource them.

Table 7: advantages and disadvantages of assessment centres

Advantages of Assessment Centres Methods: Disadvantages

The methods of evaluation are comprehensive and This type of performance appraisal is costly and
provide reliable insights. It is one of the most time-consuming.
effective methods to select employees for
leadership roles

Competency gaps are identified, and training needs Experts are required to conduct most of the tests.
are assessed.

1. 360-Degree Feedback :

Based on this method, employees are not just evaluated by their immediate supervisors, but
also by their stakeholders within the organization, such as seniors, peers, team members,
subordinates, even themselves. Survey questionnaires are usually used to collect feedback on the
employee’s behaviour and performance. 360-Degree Feedback method is generally undertaken
to determine training and development needs. It is not commonly employed to ascertain salary
increments.

Table 8: advantages and disadvantages of 360-Degree feedback

Advantages of 360-Degree Feedback: Disadvantages of 360-Degree Feedback

The self-appraisal also helps employees understand Another possibility is that team members may do a
how they view themselves in comparison with how favour for each other and give each other excellent
the various stakeholders perceive them. rating.

This method also creates a culture where A team member may purposely rate the employee
employees treat all their stakeholders with equal poorly to make his or her self look better in
respect. comparison

Since a variety of stakeholders that the employee

comes in contact with regularly are involved in this
process, the feedback is usually well-rounded and
insightful.

4. 720-Degree Feedback
This method takes the concept of 360-Degree Feedback a step further. The employee is
assessed not just by stakeholders within the organization but also by groups outside the
organization. They include clients, suppliers, investors, etc. This gives the evaluator a more
comprehensive picture of the employee’s performance.

Advantages of 720-Degree Feedback 

 Also, this method is an opportunity to show them that the organization cares about their
feedback.
 These groups play a huge role in the success of an organization. Therefore, feedback
received from them may be of great value

Disadvantages of 720-Degree Feedback

 It may not always be possible to receive timely responses from customers, suppliers, and
investors and it may not be okay to follow up with them for their reactions beyond a
point

2. Human Resource Accounting Method

All employees come with a cost. This does not just mean the value of their salary, but also
the cost of their recruitment and selection, induction, on-boarding, training, relocation costs,
other compensations, and benefits, etc. Even overheads such as laptops are factored into this
cost.

The monetary contribution of the employee is calculated. The net contribution of the
employee in terms of money is then determined by calculating the difference between the
employee’s cost and gift.
Human Resource Accounting Method Advantages:

 Human resources are a valuable asset to an organization. This method allows the
organization to take stock of that asset and evaluate how much it is worth to the
organization.
 Human resources are a valuable asset to an organization. This method allows the
organization to take stock of that asset and evaluate how much it is worth to the
organization.

Human Resource Accounting Method Disadvantages:

 This is a relatively newer method and is still developing.

3. Psychological Analysis

A psychologist evaluates the employee based on psychological tests, interviews, and

observation. Discussions with the supervisors and information obtained from other appraisal
methods are also considered. This method is being increasingly adopted across organizations and
is growing in popularity every day.

Advantages of Psychological Analysis: Disadvantages of Psychological Analysis

This method does well to highlight the potential of
the employee and does not fixate on the
employee’s past performance entirely.
this method attempts to understand the future
potential of the employee based on his or her
psychological profile
An employee’s past performance cannot be entirely
ignored.
One cannot just rely on this form of evaluation
alone. Psychological tests do not always provide
exact answers

4. Customer Feedback

This method ties employee performance directly to customer feedback. Organizations are
increasingly employing this method to evaluate the performance of their sales force.

Advantages of customer feedback:

The evaluation received in this manner may be more dependable as it would depend on
the customer and the service that the customer has received from the salesperson.

Disadvantages of customer feedback:

 It may be possible that the feedback may not be entirely reliable as customers could have
their moods, biases, and prejudices that may colour their judgment. For example, a customer
may harbour prejudice towards people belonging to a specific religious group, and that may
come in the way of evaluating the employee’s performance somewhat.

It should be noted that even though we decided to group the various PAS under
traditional and modern PAS, they could equally be classified differently under absolute standard
systems and relative standards or as

Section 2: Conceptual background of employee engagement

2.1 Definition and evolution of employee engagement

The concept of employee engagement is a relatively new one compared to performance

appraisal. It is essential for business performance especially post-Covid19 with the lockdowns
and its psychological implications. In what follows, we shall take a look at the controversy
regarding the conceptualization of engagement and its evolution.

2.1.1 Definition of employee engagement

In the ISO 9001–2015 standard, the Principle of “Employee engagement” as formulated

implies the emergence of motivation, active participation and involvement of workers in all
production processes, which should favorably influence on the growth of labour efficiency.
People begin to work effectively only if they are passionate about work. To achieve this, it is
necessary to create conditions for the maximum interest of employees in their work. It is
believed that employee satisfaction with his work gives rise to his loyalty to the employer,
loyalty forms engagement, which, in turn, allows improve the quality of products (Stevenson,
2019)

According to the point of view of several scientists, employee engagement is primarily a

person’s predisposition to participate in particular labour activity, which consists of three
components: knowledge, interest, and performance (Meiyani et al., 2019). Some authors
understand by engagement the employee’s concentration on the task, satisfaction with his role,
and also a commitment to the organization and its goals and values (Eskildsen et al., 2000).
Engagement linked to active onset employee relations to the organization. It defines and
identifies what the individual does how he behaves, not that he feels what emotions he
experiences in the long-term aspect of the activity, regardless of changes in external
circumstances. It is behaviour that can objectively characterize employee involvement. An
important aspect of employee engagement is that it is characterized physical and psychological
the energy that workers last time is additionally devoted to organizational processes not caused
by rational assumptions. B. Shuck (2013) in their studies found that engagement is more stable
appropriation compared to loyalty: on the one hand, more difficult formed, on the other hand,
gives in less change due to external factors. Given the selected features, can to formulate the
following definition of the concept of engagement - this is a stable attitude characteristic of the
employee, which involves a prolonged concentration of the employee on solving problems that
bring additional effect to the organization, which is reflected in the additional emotional
attachment of the employee to the goals and values of the organization. As a consequence
follows that the concept of engagement includes five basic principles:

 Engagement depends on physical, mental, and psychological investments, energy in

various objects: pretty generalized (support company innovation policy) or more specific
(implementation of transformations on specific work area).
 Efficiency and effectiveness of labor activity are directly related to the focus of this
activity on increasing the degree of employee engagementt in the ongoing process.
 Various employees manifest, various degrees of engagement movement in the work,
even on the same job site, with the same functional, at the same time employee
involvement is a floating indicator, which in certain boundaries may vary. The width of
the range of change is also determined employee engagement indicator.
 Employee engagement may have both quantitative and qualitative expressions.

Number of additionally studied material related to any aspect activities of the

organization, in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of employee engagement in this
participation.

2.1.2 Evolution of employee engagement

One of the first researchers to identify the concept of employee engagement was William
Kahn, a psychologist who was interested in understanding the factors involved in people
engagement. Kahn produced his paper, Psychological conditions of personal engagement and
Disengagement ( (Kahn, 1990), following his research to test the premise that individuals not
only can bring varying levels of themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally to their
work, but that those levels affected their experiences of work and therefore a their performance.
Based on Kahn’s analysis (Kahn, 1990) there exists three dimensions of employee engagement.
These include Physical engagement (efforts both physical and mental, energy), (2) cognitive
engagement (work attachment, creativity, good knowledge of employers’ expectations) and (3)
emotional engagement (sense of belonging, management styles, interpersonal relations) it can be
assumed that engagement is employee desire and skill actively (for the benefit of the
organization) within their professional my duties in production the activities of the enterprise.

A lot of research, however, provide a lot of dimensions and definitions.

In the first case Later A. Saks expanded two types of engagement: employee
engagement,
what is meant by the realization of professional activity and organizational engagement, what is
mean the implementation of an organization member's role (Saks, 2006). The main factor that
motivates an individual to actively act is his working activity, and is the second case of
belonging to a particular organization. He weighed the fact that the identification with the
organization and organisational engagement differs not only in emotional and cognitive terms,
but precisely in behaviour of an individual. The results of the Saks research showed that both
types of engagement depend on organizational support, how employees understand it. The
difference is that, employee engagement leads characteristics of working activity (survey
elements about one’s day-to- day job, survey elements describing the local work environment,
survey elements about the organization), or organizational engagement leads organizational
justice (Saks, 2006). For this day, many scientists focus more on employee engagement, while at
the same time emphasizes the need for employee engagement and organisational engagement
(Guest, 2014; Aninkan et al., 2014). By D. Guest the efficiency of the organisation and the
growth of economic indicators depends on the organizational engagement, or employee’s
wellbeing depends by employee engagement themselves (Guest, 2014). Can be assumed,
organisation's ambition to increase efficiency by increasing employee engagement will not be
fully successful if all actions will be restricted to framing of employee engagement. On one side
the effectiveness of engagement employee is higher than non-engagement employee and this is
in the interests of the organization, on other side the interest of the engaged employee is their
own professional achievements. They assess the organisation by working conditions, salary,
social services. They will change the organisation if these conditions are not met. In Table 1 can
see differences between employees and organizational engagement: the organization is in second
place, organization values and organization development are not important, does not actively
represent the organization's life, because such employees work only for themselves.

Table 1: Differences between employee engagement and organization

engagement (based on Guest, 2014)
Employee engagement Organisational engagement
The work you do The vision of the organisation, where it’s headed
The team work environment The values of the organisation, what it believes in
Personal development The perceived support given to all employees
opportunities
The relationship with your line
The leaders have communicated a vision that motivates employees
manager
The opportunity to have a say
about what goes on in your The opportunity to have a say about what goes on in the organisation
team
The response provided a line
The response provided by senior managers to views expressed
manager to views expressed
It would take a lot to get me to
Leadership, trust and respect
leave
The leaders demonstrate that people are important to the company’s
I rarely think about leaving
success
I wouldn’t hesitate to
By decisions leaders are demonstrating that quality and improvement
recommend this organization
are top priorities
to a friend
I tell others great things about
Leader engagement
working here

This organization inspires my

Customer engagement
best work

This organization motivates me Sales Partner engagement

Source: our care

If managers or leaders want to ensure full organizational engagement, it is important to

engage all of stakeholders at every touch point. The organizational engagement is created by the
following vectors: Leader engagement - Employee engagement – Customer engagement – Sales
partner engagement. Namely, two different types explain why some engaged employees leave
the organization while others stay. Happily enough, a high level of engagement is not important
for all organisations. This is most relevant for commercial organisations or in those structured
units which are directly related to the assurance of profits. The organisation must provide in
priority business direction and increase the engagement of employees who are directly related to
them. Otherwise investment in human resources will be unjustified. In this context employee
engagement is understood as a common indicator of the effectiveness of human resource
management.

2.2 Dimensions of employee engagement

Many authors, many dimensions of engagement. As previously said, Khan is one of the
pioneer authors of engagement and his definition of engagement greatly influence whatever
came afterwards. However, he is not the only one that conceptualised engagement. For the sake
of this work we shall equally consider other authors namely the UWES-Gallup three-
dimensional engagement

2.2.1 Khan’s dimensions of engagement

Physical engagement – this relates to the extent to which employees expend their efforts,
both physical and mental, as they go about their jobs. Kahn used examples of employees
describing themselves as ‘flying around’ during their work, and experiencing high levels of
personal engagement during that time. He linked the ability to expend physical and mental
energy at work with increased feelings of confidence.

Cognitive engagement – to be engaged at this level, employes need to know what their
employer’s vision and strategies are, and what performance they need to deliver to contribute to
them as much as possible. Kahn also drew attention to the meaning that people attached to their
work, theorising that more creativity and confident decisions making.

Emotional engagement - this is based upon the emotional relationship that employees
feel with their employer. A positive relationship will require the organisation to learn how to
create a sense of belonging at work, encouraging employees to trust and buy in to the values and
misson of the company. Kahn cited the likes of positive interpersonal relations, group dynamics
and management styles as practices that would make people feel safe and trusted.

Before Kahn introduced the concept of personal engagement, managers tended to think
that good performance followed from getting the ‘right fit’ during recruitment exercises and
providing the right incentives. In raising the topic of engagement at work through his research,
Kahn set in motion a whole field of discussions and theories about employee engagement.

According to Bakker et al. (2012), it is very important to look not only at the factors of
different levels of employee engagement, but also at the mechanism of their action. Individual
factors that form employee engagement includes the personal characteristics of the employee.
Kahn identifies such employee characteristics, which are necessary for the employee
engagement:

 Opportunity to show initiative and not to be afraid that it will damage your image, career,
status;
 Ability to use your physical, emotional and psychological resources, which are
understood as an investment in the success of an organization;
 Understanding that psychological and physical effort will be appreciated.
2.2.2 Other conceptions of engagement
UWES Gallup developed a hierarchical model namely HRM Key Performance Indicators
(KPI) adopted from Herzberg's, (Meiyani et al., 2019) and used to measure employee
engagement in many companies. In the Gallup hierarchy, there are four main dimensions and 12
main indicators to achieve engagement hierarchy in the organization such as basic needs,
management support, teamwork and, growth, progress in the last six months, opportunities to
learn and grow.

Other scientists add to the individual factors the personal characteristics, such as
optimism, self-esteem, self-confidence (Xanthopoulou et al., 2009; Bakker, 2011). So the terms,
which enhance employee engagement depend on the employee himself, from his character, his
values, from the evaluation of surrounding environment. The organization can influence the
much needed employee engagement, when a focus is on personal qualities, it is appreciated by
special test or motivational interview. Organizational conditions, on which depends employee
engagement, are in the organizational commitment zone. These are the conditions that are
shaped by the various HRM practices. Such conditions ensure the leadership of middle manager,
formulation of clear goals, attention, care and respect for the employee and ensuring an efficient
work process (Renugadevi, 2013). Also organizations can create a comfortable work
environment and increase the variety employee‘s functions, equitable reward and intangible
motivation or supportive communication, which guarantees quality feedback from a top level
manager. The employee will be engaged when middle level manager suggest ideas and
suggestions, to take part in the organization‘s making decisions (Crawford et al., 2013).

In understanding personal and organizational conditions of employee engagement,

organizations get the opportunity to choose a strategy to increase employee engagement.
Organizations can encourage and invest in selection of employee, who will satisfy the required
level of engagement. It is advantageous to save organizational resources that are needed to
increase employee engagement. However, there are risks the engaged employees will go out to
competitors, who will offer more attractive working conditions. On the other side, the
organization can invest in conditions which help to increase employee engagement. That method
will save costs of recruitment. However, it is a constant need to support the conditions that
stimulate employee engagement, in this case. If the two strategies are used together, the number
of engaged employee will be assured and reduced staff turnover, but will require large resources.
In general we can state, that employee engagement is useful in individual and organizational
contexts. The engagement improves the emotional state of employees and it also has a positive
effect on cognitive thinking and active behaviour. Psychological and physical well-being, job
satisfaction, self-realization, individual results of the employee is extremely important (Cheema
et al., 2015). The same, scientists notice a negative result in the imbalance between work and
personal life (Andrew, 2012). The influence of employee engagement to organization increases
competitive advantage. Employee engagement at the organizational level ensures relatively low
staff turnover, higher customer satisfaction, growth of organization‘s performance and economic
indicators.

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Section 1: Presentation of theoretical juncture of performance appraisal

and employee engagement
 Employee appraisal and commitment to job is concern, they have great benefits. The
performance process is beneficial in the following ways: it motivates workers; helps increase
their strengths and weaknesses and also increases their productivity at work. On the other it
faces challenges like inconsistency in performance process, process being influenced by bias and
personal emotions, feedback not given and process not done based on organisational goals.

Many HR departments are taking more of a strategic view and ensuring its procedures
are in line with the goals of the business. Strategic HRM is more so how Human Resources can
affect the organisational performance and how improving the HR strategies in the organisation
will improve the company as a whole. It is concerned with the strategic choices associated with
the workforce in companies and are inevitably connected to the performance. Strategic HRM is
critical to the company’s survival and success (Boxall et al. 2003)

Increasingly, companies are relying on their human assets - the knowledge,

competence and capabilities of the workforce - as a source of competitive advantage. The
assessment of employees performance is one of the most common practices in almost every
organisation, and so performance appraisal is an essential procedure for the better commitment
and performance of employees and the organisation itself (Karimi, Malik & Hussain, 2011).
Many businesses regularly use performance appraisal scores to determine the distribution of
pay, promotions, and other rewards; however, few organisations attempt to evaluate how
employee performance appraisal impact employee commitment and general performance
(Swiercz, Bryan, Eagle, Bizzotto & Renn, 2012).

1.1 Impact and challenges of performance appraisal

1.1.1 Impact of performance appraisal

Beneficial to employees

Where performance appraisal allows the employees to get monetary and non-monetary rewards
from management, it gives the most significant benefit for employees. In such a situation,
it gives management and employees the chance to schedule time for one to one discussion on
the performance over the period of time. This discussion between employee and supervisor
allows them to discuss the main issues that impeded the performance and work. In N.C.C.B
workers are given bonus at the end of the year based on their performance appraisal rewards.
Those who performed well during the year are usually promoted or giving bonus payment.

Constant Feedback

In the same vein, they will find measures of addressing the concerns raised. It can be
observed from all over the world that organizations that provide constant feedback on
performance appraisal to their employees create a strong bond between direct reports and
supervisors only if the appraisal is conducted properly and fairly. This process is very common is
small organizations like National Cocoa and Coffee Board in Douala where the manager
constantly gives workers feedback after the appraisal process. They don’t just do the process
and leave it hanging without getting back to the workers to let them know where they performed
well and where they didn’t. This process also gives the opportunity to employees to review their
performances and discuss the issues and difficulties they are facing in the work. It also it gives
the path to gain the aims and objectives in the future time thereby making employees to be
committed to their jobs. This interaction of direct reports and supervisors give the opportunity to
help the future goals. Therefore, it enhances the productivity. So, this process gives the best time
to employees to have chat with the supervisors without any hindrance and instruction
(Orpen, 1997).

Facilitate setting of future organizational plans

The appraisal system allows the supervisors and employees to discuss the future targets,
training, rotation need, orientation and development, if needed. This makes employees to
be dedicated and committed to their jobs as they will be aware of what goals they are working
towards. In Ace Global plans are made for the following year after the appraisal process has been
done at the end of the year. After the appraisal process they are able to set new objectives and
goals based on workers performances. In this discussion, the supervisors and the direct reports
discuss the various challenges about the present as well as the absent working skills, career
development and what is to be done in the future (Dyck, 1997). Here, supervisor highlights the
key skills of the direct report and makes or arranges for the future career inspirations. This
discussion can be useful to measure the productivity of the organization, for the recruitment and
orientation process. For example, the feedback can provide information about how employees are
performing, their training need, futures aspirations and non-performing employees. Appraisal
data can also provide information on how well the recruiting strategies are working, what
developmental process is good enough and what the effectiveness of employees is.

Serve as performance data sheet

Performance appraisal process could be a data sheet highlighting the overall

performance of all employees; telling how well productivity has improved, remains same or fall.
This goes further to increase productivity as they will know how much work they have done and
how much more they need to put in. (Thompson and Dalta, 1970).
1.1.2 Challenges with performance appraisal
Both researchers and management have worked for many years to try to find better
ways to improve performance in organisations, however managing and evaluating performance
is still a major challenge for the majority of managers today (Armstrong, 1994).

In order to make a performance appraisal system effective and successful, an organization

comes across various challenges and problems. Raters‟ evaluations are often subjectively
biased by their cognitive and motivational states (DeNisi and Williams, 1988; Longenecker et
al., 1987), and supervisors often apply different standards with different employees which
results in inconsistent, unreliable and invalid evaluations (Folger et al., 1992). In order to
create better systems, researchers have traditionally focused on validity and reliability (Bretz et
al., 1992) by designing newer “forms” of performance appraisals(e.g., behavioral-based systems
that better define specific essential job functions of employees or 360-degree feedback
mechanisms that allow for cross validation via multiple raters).

Inconsistency in effectiveness of performance appraisal

However, despite these recent advances in evaluation design, critics continue to argue
that performance appraisal systems are not consistently effective (Atkins and Wood, 2002;
DeNisi and Kluger, 2000). Thomas and Bretz (1994) argue that evaluations are often
perceived by employees and supervisors with "fear and loathing." Two possible explanations for
the fear and loathing are the absence of a "sense of ownership" and an absence of rewards for
properly completing the process. Cardy (1998) describes the appraisal process as "a difficult and
error- ridden task." However, Cardy also points out that it is an important task that affects
both the individual and the organization. It could also affect the commitment of employees their
jobs if it is not effectively done as there will be no consistency. As suggested by Drenth
(1984) evaluation is a sensitive matter, often eliciting negative psychological responses such as
resistance, denial, aggression, or discouragement, particularly if the assessment is negative. In
C.D.C a few of the workers complain of being discouraged by the performance process
especially those who have poor results. Thus high perceptions of evaluative performance
appraisal use may result in negative feelings about the appraisal.

Inadequacy in performance appraisal systems

Oberg (1972) mentions several pitfalls that are common to performance appraisal
systems they demand too much from supervisors, (b) standards and ratings vary widely and
sometimes unfairly, (c) personal values and bias can replace organizational standards, (d)
employees may not know how they are rated due to lack of communication, (e) the validity of
ratings is reduced by supervisory resistance to give the ratings - particularly negative ratings,
(f) negative feedback can demotivate employees and make them not to be fully committed to
their jobs, and (g) they interfere with the more constructive coaching relationship that should
exist between superiors and their employees. Bretz, Milkovich, and Read (1992) found that
organizations continue to do things that undermine the effectiveness of the appraisal process.
Little time is spent on the appraisal process, raters are not trained and are not held accountable,
and the employee‟s role in the process is overlooked along with potentially valuable sources of
performance information from the employee, peers, and subordinates.

In an article by Gray (2002) titled “Performance Appraisals Don‟t Work,” he gives five
reasons why performance appraisal fails:

1. Many appraisal programs are implemented without appropriate training for the managers
giving the appraisals. In Andron Engineering most of the managers who carry out performance
appraisal have not been trained to do so as they hardly even hold meetings where they can
be given orientation on how to do it.
2. Performance appraisal encourages mediocrity by encouraging safe behaviour as opposed
to risk-taking because managers set unchallenging goals to ensure they meet their goals.
3. Most work in organizations is the result of a group effort rather than
individual work so individual performance appraisal is not a meaningful way to
measure performance.
4. Supervisor bias can cause inaccuracies in the appraisal feedback.

Performance appraisal does not provide protection from legal issues dealing with
discrimination and, when not done well, it can actually be a detriment to the organization when
faced with legal challenges by its employees.

Errors in organizational systems

The person who arguably had the most influence in shaping the view that performance
appraisal was not an effective tool to lead and manage organizations was Deming (1986) in
his book Out of the Crisis. He contends that performance appraisal has significant negative
drawbacks for organizations and he urges organizations not to use individual performance
appraisal but rather evaluate the performance of a unit or department instead. Deming wrote
about common cause for error in organizations and argued that organizations that can
eliminate common cause for error will improve. He further stated that most common cause for
error is found within organizational systems rather than with the individuals within the
organization. When performance appraisal systems have errors the commitment of workers to
their jobs is affected because they will find difficulty in trusting the system so they may not
take it seriously.
Negative feedback

One of the challenges that make performance appraisal a difficult task is that of
giving late feedback or giving no feedback at all after the process. Oberg (1972) mentions
negative feedback as one of the pitfalls of performance appraisal that can demotivate employees
and make them not to be fully committed to their jobs. Usually after performance appraisal is
carried out the workers are to be notified on their performance so that they are able to know
how well they are at their jobs or which areas need improvements. When employees are aware
of their skills and abilities they are able to better focus on their jobs and are better committed.

To summarize the challenges of performance appraisal there are two different views as
some people think it is a very vital part of management while there are others who think it is a
difficult task as there are several challenges that managers face.

1.1.3 Possible measures of effective performance appraisal processes in organizational

management

The E-reward survey (2005) highlights a number of conditions for success in

performance appraisal, showing that simplification and the use of competencies are among the
most common measures applied to improve existing systems. Further conditions for success
stem from these, for example a simpl ification for systems can be supported by establishing
more regular review meetings but to ensure these meetings are valuable and provide a forum for
quality discussions managers need to be capable of conducting useful appraisals and be
committed to the process. It could be argued that this capability and commitment should be
driven by the senior leadership. The senior team should also ensure that performance
management should be aligned with the corporate strategy, so that individuals understand how
what they do contributes to the overall goals of the organisation. These include;

Regular and Quality Discussions

It is important for management to hold regular meetings, although each meeting is often
more focused and shorter than using the one meeting per annum model. Sillup et al. (2010)
discuss that traditionally, appraisals are completed once a year and usually include a mid-year
discussion, but they argue research has indicated that this is too infrequent because raters face
problems with remembering what employees did over the previous months. Juran (2004, cited in
Sillup et al., 2010) found that organisations with monthly or quarterly performance appraisals,
outperformed competitors on every financial and productivity measure and got positive feedback
from employees about the fairness of the PA system”.
 At Standard Chartered Bank the appraisal process is called “Conversations that Count‟.
The aims are to increase staff engagement, develop staff and deliver better results. Managers
have four conversations with their staff during the year: perform (the appraisal against personal
objectives; learn and develop (planning learning required to perform their job); careers (building
the potential to take on larger roles); and engagement (where managers ask staff how well
the organisation knows them, cares about them, helps them to focus and develops their
strengths).

A later study by the Institute for Employment Studies (Hirsh et al., 2004) interviewed
employees who said they had experienced a manager who had “developed” them. Again
conversations lay at the heart of this process, as did managers being close to employees and their
work and giving them focused coaching and access to work experiences. This kind of attention
improved performance via its impact on confidence and motivation and pushed workers to be
committed to their jobs. These psychological effects were as important as skill acquisition in
the impact of developmental management styles. Effective developers also created a climate of
openness within their teams and encouraged informal discussions about work issues.

Wider Input into the Discussion

There is also a trend towards more people inputting into the end-of-year review to try to
improve the quality of assessments. Surveys suggest that between a quarter and a third of
employers are using some aspect of 360 degree appraisal, collecting input from colleagues and
reports, and sometimes from customers. Some of this is formal moderated/managed “multirater”
feedback; in other cases it is informal comment. Finn (2007, cited in Wikina, 2008) states
that a strong emphasis should be placed on regular and consistent feedback, especially informal
feedback and research about 360 performance appraisal systems suggest that it is an effective
way to increase the flow of information within an organisation (Garavan and Morley, 1997, cited
in Sullip, 2010). The CIPD found that fewer than half of employees state that their line manager
usually or always provides feedback on their performance, but those that could claim they
always received feedback were more satisfied with their job (CIPD, 2009).

Within 360 feedback there is always a possible friendship bias but this can be
reduced by training what colleagues need to evaluate (Reilly, Smither & Vasibopoulos, 1996,
cited in Sillup, 2010). Evaluation of managers from their direct reports is seen as empowering for
employees and to protect against retribution, ratings can be combined into overall ratings (Sillup,
2010) and employees given an opportunity to perform self-appraisal are also found to be
motivated and have Research shows that collecting feedback from multiple sources is desirable
because they give a complete perspective about employees‟ performance and reduce the
chance of ethical concerns (Longenecker et al., 1987, cited in Sillup, 2010).

Sillup et al (2010) found through research with five US-based organisations that all were
using annual 360-degree feedback. Within each organisation, the majority of performance
evaluators and employees (87 per cent) had received training about their performance appraisal
system and 85 per cent of evaluators helped their employees set objectives. However, only 20 per
cent of the evaluators with greater responsibility within the organisation were seeking feedback
about an employees’ performance from peers, which was inconsistent with the 360 appraisal
system.

Committed and Capable Managers

In order for regular and quality discussions to take place, the commitment and
capability of managers needs to be developed and this should be an important consideration in the
design and implementation of a performance management system. Purcell’s research at the
University of Bath identified this as key in “bringing HR policies to life”. Purcell et al. (2003)
included appraisal as one of eleven HR practices investigated for their potential links to
performance. This report found that employees were more likely to „go the extra mile if
managers stimulate and encourage positive attitudes. “Employees would go an extra mile only if
they are highly committed and dedicated to their jobs so capable managers who encourage
positive attitudes help increase employee commitment to their jobs. Purcell concluded that
appraisal is an HR practice worth paying attention to because it offers line managers the
opportunity to bring about commitment, job satisfaction, and motivation which in turn lead to
discretionary behaviour.”

Research by Baron also supports the widely held view that performance management
needs to be owned by line managers (Baron, 2004). Rees and Porter (2004) state that for a
scheme to “have any prospect of success it needs to be owned and driven by line management”
(Rees & Porter, 2004, p.31) and senior management commitment has to be maintained (Wolff,
2005). Sillup et al. (2010) state that many performance appraisal systems fail because
organisations do not direct enough effort into gaining support for the process from those
managers who will implement the system and Lewy and Du Mee (1998, cited in De Waal, 2003)
argue that successful implementation and use of a performance management system will be
achieved when managers have an “intensified awareness of the importance of the performance
management system”. De Waal (2003) also states that “managers understanding of the nature of
performance management is a key behavioural factor for the successful implementation of
performance management and that a positive attitude of managers towards performance
management is vital”. A good alignment between managers' responsibilities and the performance
management system is also considered necessary. Martinez (2005) also found through research at
an electricity company that at a tactical level, the performance review process can become
monotonous, which means that managers have to „continuously refresh the way in which
performance is reviewed to keep it interesting and attractive‟. This meant that the leadership of
managers played an important part in the success of the system.

A study by IRS (2005) on the use of appraisals found a common concern was that if
managers are not adequately trained and committed to the appraisal system, the performance
review becomes „just a paperwork exercise‟. While this illustrates the need for managers to be
committed, it is equally as important for managers to possess the skills needed to conduct
effective appraisals. While it is acknowledged that individual managers must have the skills
required to conduct appraisals effectively, only just over half (57 per cent) of respondents to
the CIPD’s survey of performance management reported that they train appraisers. Some 34 per
cent train all staff, however, a greater proportion of all staff in the public sector (49 per cent)
are likely to receive training (CIPD, 2005).

In the IRS study (Wolff, 2005) Virgin Mobile reported good training of appraisers and
appraises was key to making its appraisal system succeed, along with positive communication
to “pitch it as a benefit”. The Student Loans Company also commented that training of
managers in carrying out appraisals is essential to the success of appraisal systems‟. Thornton
and Zorich, 1980 (cited in Silip, 2010) also note that to increase employees‟ awareness about
how a performance appraisal system is intended to operate, employees should also receive
training.

Colville and Millner (2011) state that HR need to do a „robust training needs analysis
prior to implementing performance management and capability needs to be analysed in two
areas:

1. The skills to manage the process; objective setting, gathering evidence and objective rating.
2. The behavioural skills required to have regular conversations about performance, personal
development and career progression.
Building the capability of managers seems to be even more important where
competencies used. The most comprehensive competency framework, no matter how well
designed and appropriate, will not make a bad process good, nor will it compensate for poor
training, poor techniques or unskilled users‟ (Whiddett and Hollyforde, 1999, p.18). Sillup et al.
(2010) argue that those who evaluate performance must accept the importance of performance
appraisal as an organisational objective and integral part of their job, rather than a make-work
hassle.
Strong Leadership

Baron (2004) commented that organisations are winning support from line managers through
ensuring there is strong leadership from the top of the organisation; involving line managers in
the development of performance management processes and including performance management
as a criterion in assessing line managers’ own performance. It is important for leaders to be fully
involved in the performance management process (Karuhanga, 2010) and as Buchner, 2007
states in regard to successful implementation of performance appraisal systems, success begins
with top-down support but requires bottom-up support for it to work (cited in Silip et al., 2010)
and Finn (2007, cited in Wikina, 2008) states that gaining stakeholder commitment is the first
step in the foundations for successful performance management. Equally, Franco & Bourne
(2003, 2005, cited in Elzinga et al., 2009) found that top management agreement and
commitment was a crucial factor related to the effective implementation of performance
management. Alongside this, they also identify the three E’s as crucial to implementation, being
empowering, and Enabling and Encouraging behaviours from senior management.

Wikina (2008) adds that senior management needs to show leadership and set the tone
for performance management, building the right culture based on efficient delivery of service,
organised and multidisciplinary teamwork, and effective communication at all levels. Wikina also
states that the leadership needs to provide and allocate tools for performance management and
improvement.

Align with Organizational Goals

Senior leaders should also play a role in ensuring performance appraisal aligns corporate
strategy and objectives to individuals, so that employees know how what they do fits with the
organisation’s overall strategy. When employees are aware of what to do that fits in the
organisational goals, their dedication and commitment to their jobs increase. This is known as
the ‘golden thread’ of performance appraisal management (IDeA, 2004).

Stiffler (2006, cited in Wikina, 2008) recommends that a unified approach to performance
appraisal‟ is achieved through aligning the objectives, resources and activities of the organisation
to the goals and opportunities of individuals within the organisation (Karuhanga, 2010). Lawson
et al. (2003, cited in Elzinga et al., 2009) found through research in 150 organisations, that two-
thirds agreed that implementing performance appraisal systems increased employees‟ awareness
of company strategy and business plan goals, and helped to align operational improvements with
overall strategy. Wikina (2008) found that the need to align performance and goals with
organisational strategy is causing organisations to examine the performance appraisal structures
they have in place and devise ways to make them more effective and outcome-based.
 Cascio (1991, cited in Sillup et al, 2010) states that a performance appraisal system should
„help managers groom their employees to accomplish objectives that will help the corporation
gain competitive advantage and Borman (1991, cited in Sillup, 2010) equally argues that an
effective performance appraisal requires relevance; through which there are clear links between
the tasks for a job and organisational objectives.

Murphy (2004) criticises that organisational goals for performance appraisal systems
are not considered carefully enough and this results in systems attempting to achieve too much.
Moreover, Murphy and Cleveland (1995) make the point that the organisational goals for
the appraisal system need to be compatible with what the appraiser and appraise want to get out
of it. If not, they will not use it effectively. The implication here is that many of the
organisational purposes of appraisal are not of great value to the manager or the employee, so
their compliance will at best be half-hearted and they may well consciously distort the process to
achieve their own desired ends.

Locke and Latham (1990) in a series of studies have shown strong evidence for the
effectiveness of individual goal setting, although the majority of such work has not been done in
the context of appraisal. They advocate the use of goals that are specific, moderately difficult,
and accepted by the individual for whom they are set. The recurring theme here is about goals
which the employee really agrees with, not goals which are imposed.

Alongside the importance of aligning employees efforts with company objectives is the
need to clearly communicate the organisation’s expectation of its employees. The Corporate
Leadership Council (2002) concluded that employee understanding of performance standards and
objectives is more influential than specific features of the performance management system itself
in driving performance.

Tailored to Suit Employees Requirements

Performance appraisal systems should be adapted to accommodate the different

requirements of the varied employees within an organisation (Rees and Porter, 2003). Rees and
Porter suggest that systems should take into account differing organisational needs and priorities,
levels of managerial expertise, styles of management and the sophistication of employees.
Cederblom (1982) equally proposes that different employees in different circumstances need
essentially different appraisal dialogues, which he describes as the contingency model. In this
model he distinguishes between:

 High performers in non-routine jobs: needing a development focus to appraisal,

at flexible time intervals. Institute for Employment Studies.
 Longer tenure, satisfactory performers in routine jobs: needing discussions of deviations
 from prior acceptable performance, held at infrequent intervals or when exceptions
occur.
 Newer or lower performing employees: needing frequent developmental and evaluative
reviews of performance.

Dychtwald et al. (2006, cited in Colville and Milner, 2011) also notes that
organisations are increasingly seeing differences in the way that different generations respond to
performance management. An example is provided of „baby boomers‟ expecting recognition of
their contribution to longer-term success, with younger generations seeking recognition for
shorter- term achievements. This presents opportunities for dissatisfaction if a performance
management system is biased towards either short-term or long-term benefits.

Sillup (2010) states that organisations need to consider which performance appraisal system
will meet its objectives and motivate employees, with a „fundamental issue‟ for organisations
being whether the system rewards employees for generating short-term results (e.g. sales during
business quarter) or for completing long-term results (Beatty, 1989 cited in Sillup, 2010). Sillup
et al. (2010) also presents another perspective using the example of drug development within
the pharmaceutical industry, in which efforts will not always result in a new drug being achieved
during the one-year performance appraisal period. They state „to be successful, it is pertinent to
customise performance appraisal for each environment‟ (p.41). Fletcher (2001) similarly argues
that the range of factors which might influence the appraisal needs of different employees are:

 Job types
 Tenure in organization or job
 Career stage
 Personality and motivation
 Performance level.
Igvarson and Chadbourne (1997) argue, based on the ineffectual experiences of
implementing appraisal for teachers in Australia that the active support of staff, and adapting
systems to meet local needs, are both essential requirements for success. Chandra (2004)
reinforces the importance of employee involvement, while O’Conner and Lee (2007) document
how when home care workers are involved in tailoring an appraisal system to suit their
own needs, it became a success. Research by De Waal (2003) emphasises the importance of
behavioural factors in implementing a successful performance management system, which relates
to the involvement of staff in the development, implementation and use of performance
management processes. Karuhanga (2010) also recognises that a committed and supportive
workforce is necessary for effective implementation of performance management systems. The
natural conclusion here is that a „one size fits all‟ appraisal governed by the need to document a
complex agenda is not appropriate. When performance systems are tailored in a way that suits
employee‟s requirements it improves employee commitment to their jobs.

Use of Technology

Technology is also being used to help in trying to get employees to trust more and even
enjoy the process, thereby making them to be more dedicated to their jobs. A large
proportion of workers in the large organisations (N.C.C.B and C.D.C) highly recommend
the use of technology as part of the performance process as it reduces the rate of errors in results.
When the rate of errors is reduced employees tend to trust the performance appraisal system
more and this increases their commitment to their jobs as they will want to have good results at
the end of the performance process, so they will work harder. McGregor, (2009) reports
that employers are trying out social networking-style systems that aim to improve – and take
the dread – out of annual reviews. Accenture has developed a Facebook-style program called
Performance Multiplier that lets employees post status updates and personal weekly goals.
Rypple lets people post Twitter length questions about their performance in return for anonymous
feedback, and has software to replace the standard annual review with quick monthly surveys and
discussions. By prompting people to document and adjust their goals and learning constantly
Accenture hopes that the formal process discussions will also improve.

This is a step beyond earlier automation of the performance appraisal process. E-

performance management often simply made electronic what was previously a paper process.
Whilst generating better management information (on say performance by grade, gender,
division, etc.), there was little additional functionality offered (e.g. to segment the process by say
work area). Indeed, it permitted the easier management of remote workers, yet risked a
dehumanisation of the process. Bourne et al. (2000) state that implementation of performance
management concerns the systems established for collecting and processing data that enable
regular measurement. They suggest this can involve computer programming to capture data
already within a system or implementing new procedures, so that information currently not
recorded is captured or it can involve new initiatives such as the introduction of an employee
survey. Bourne et al. however also identify computer system issues as an obstacle to the full
implementation of performance management within organisations.

Monitored systems

The literature shows that performance appraisal schemes need to be adequately co-
ordinated and monitored. „In addition to evaluating employees on a regular basis, organisations
should assess the effectiveness of the appraisal system periodically‟ (Schraeder, 2007, p.23).
Rees and Porter (2004) argue that the role of HR needs to be emphasised in co-ordinating and
facilitating the process. The Civil Aviation Authority recommends that the process should
be regularly reviewed and adjusted if necessary, but warns against continually changing the
scheme (Wolff, 2005). Cocca et al. (2010) also state that for effective performance management,
the system needs to be dynamic and fluid to respond to changing business circumstances so that
performance measures always remain relevant. They note, however, that few organisations often
have the processes in place for monitoring their systems. Performance management systems
consist of a collection of five elements: people, procedures, data, software, and hardware
(Wettstein and Kueng 2002, cited in Cocca, 2010) and all of these elements need to be monitored
to assess the effectiveness of a system (Cocca, 2010).

IES has conducted numerous evaluations of performance management systems as

managers are often still quite poor at evaluating performance-with-evidence, so they often
fall back on the tried and tested methods of which individuals they consider to be the most
reliable, the most visible or, perhaps subconsciously, whom they feel most comfortable
dealing with. IES has found that the outcome of this is that:

 People who work in non-standard patterns in the organization can get poorer
performance outcomes (e.g. part-times workers, the majority of whom are women).
 People from black and minority ethnic groups tend to get poorer performance
outcomes.
 Women in more senior positions tend to get poorer performance outcomes. People
with disabilities tend to get poorer performance outcomes.
 Senior staff tend to get better performance outcomes (IES, 2011).

Organisations need to think carefully about how they manage and measure
performance as the implications can be serious for the real performance of an organisation as
well as for the people employed within it. When these performance systems are well monitored
and properly carried out it makes the process more effective thereby making workers to be
committed and dedicated to their jobs as they will be aware that their performances will be
thoroughly evaluated.

Reward land Recognition

The terms rewards and recognition will be used interchangeably and they refer to the
daily, low- cost, on-the-spot awards, certificates, gifts of thanks, and other ways one
regularly praises and expresses gratitude to employees (Gotstick & Elton, 2007). Not only does
recognition reinforce good performance, but it enables employees to feel that their time, efforts,
and ingenuity are worthwhile, which leads to employee engagement (Brown, 2011). For
example, Koyuncu, Burke, and Fiksenbaum (2006) examined the potential antecedents and on
sequences of work engagement with a sample of women managers and professionals who
worked at a large Turkish bank. Results showed that autonomy, rewards, and recognition were
significant predictors of employee engagement.

Constant Feedback

This is an aspect of performance appraisal also promotes engagement and commitment to

one’s job because it fosters learning, which increases job competence and the likelihood of being
successful in achieving one’s work goals (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). It increases dedication of
workers to their jobs as they are made aware of their strengths and weaknesses so they know
what areas to improve on. For example, Wagner and Harter (2006) found that employees were
more likely to remain at their company and recommend the company as a good place to work
when their managers regularly checked in with them. A large proportion of employees in C.D.C
also recommended the use of constant feedback for the performance appraisal process. Hence,
providing supportive feedback allows employees to know that managers care about their
performance and success, which increases their levels of engagement (Marciano, 2010).

Section 2: Theories of performance appraisal and employee engagement

1.2 Theoretical framework

This Research shall be guided by 3 theories provided by Mabey, Salman and John Stacey
Adams.

Mabey has prescribed the model for performance appraisal in the form of “performance
appraisal cycle‟. This cycle has 5 elements which suggest how performance appraisal should be
managed in an organization. The elements of the performance appraisal system cycle include:

1. Setting objectives
2. Measuring performance
3. Feedback of performance results
4. Reward system based on performance outcomes
5. Amendments to objectives and activities (Mabey et al, 1999)
When the performance appraisal system in an organization follows this cycle it
makes the process more effective hence improving employee’s commitment to their jobs.
Salman on the other hand says there are two theories underlying the concept
of performance appraisal:

1. The goal setting theory

 2. Expectancy theory

 Goal setting theory had been proposed by Edwin Locke in the year 1968. It suggests
that the individual goals established by an employer play an important role in motivating
him for superior performance. This is because the employees keep following their
goals. If these goals are not achieved, they either improve their performance or modify the
goals and make them more realistic. In the case where the performance improves it will
result in achievement of the performance management system aims (Salaman et al, 2005).
When performance appraisals are carried out based on employee’s goals, it increases
employee motivation and commitment as they have a particular objective towards which
they are working.

 Expectancy theory had been proposed by Victor Vroom in 1964. This theory is based
on the hypothesis that individuals adjust their behavior in the organization on the
basis of anticipated satisfaction of valued goals set by them. The individuals modify their
behavior in such a way that is most likely to lead them to attain these goals. This theory
underlies the concept of performance appraisal as it is believed that performance is
influenced by the expectations concerning the future events (Salaman et al, 2005)

 The Equity Theory, developed by John Stacey Adams, says that satisfaction is based
on a person's perception of fairness. Applying this theory when conducting a company's
performance appraisals involves balancing the assessment of an employee's
contribution to his job with the compensation and other rewards associated with his
success. In general, highly-paid and rewarded employees tend to be the most motivated to
continue performing well on the job. When they are motivated in this way the commitment
to their jobs increases.

2.2.1 Background of the theory

Presentation of the equity theory

In the 1960s, John Stacey Adams, a behavioral psychologist, developed the equity theory. This
theory describes the relationship between the perception of fairness and worker motivation.
People typically value fair treatment. Successful entrepreneurs recognize this and structure their
business workplace to reward people according to their contributions. They also recognize that
people have needs. They can apply these observations to carrying out performance appraisals
by motivating their employees through positive reinforcement and appraising them fairly on at
least an annual basis. This can be done in the following ways.

Setting Expectations

According to the equity theory, an employee's perception of the fairness of his work's input and
outcome influences his motivation. Effective performance appraisal systems enable a manager
to clarify job responsibilities and expectations, develop an employee's capabilities, and align an
employee's behaviour to the company's strategic goals and values. An employee typically feels
satisfied with the outcome of his effort, including his pay, when the compensation matches
what he feels he puts into the job. If an employee perceives that others get more for doing
less, t he work environment by communicating job requirements clearly and establishing fair
and consistent performance objectives for all employees.

Achieving Balance

Effective managers avoid underpaying and overpaying employees. They monitor performance
and compensation regularly to achieve a productive balance. If cuts need to be made due to
economic conditions, they distribute the decreases throughout the company. To remain
motivated, employees typically need to be able to provide input to their performance plan,
modify their goals if conditions change, and seek career development opportunities.

Communicating Clearly

It's not easy to make equitable decisions while carrying out performance appraisal processes.
Managers typically evaluate their employees, calibrate ratings and decide on rewards. These
rewards include pay increases, promotions, flexible work schedules or stock options. Justifying
these decisions becomes the focus, rather than relaying constructive feedback that can enhance
performance and foster career development. When carrying out performance appraisals
managers should communicate company goals and make sure employees understand their role
in achieving business objectives. By recognizing the effort, loyalty, commitment, skill and
enthusiasm that an exemplary employee displays, an effective manager acknowledges
accomplishments, establishes trust and builds a productive workforce. A worker's sense of
achievement tends to build loyalty and enables him to feel secure about his future with the
company.

When performance appraisal processes are carried out fairly by enforcing the
above methods; setting expectations, achieving balance and communicating
clearly it motivates employees.
Presentation of expectancy theory
In order to mobilize the theory expectancy, it was necessary to look at the definition and
description of the expectancy theory.

2.3.1. Definition of expectancy theory

This is a theory that individuals are motivated to perform if they know that their extra
performance is recognized and rewarded Vroom (1994). We can define it has the ability for an
individual to have different sets of goals and can be motivated if they have certain expectations.
2.3.2 Objective of expectancy theory
The theory states that the intensity of a tendency to perform in a particular manner is
dependent on the intensity of an expectation that the performance will follow by a definite
outcome and on the appeal of the outcome to individual.
2.3.3 Description of expectancy theory
An expectancy theory proposes that an individual will behave or act in a certain way
because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over others due to what they expect the
result of that selected behavior will be.
However, we can say that expectancy theory suggests that individuals are motivated to
perform if they know that their extra performance is recognized and rewarded. Managers can use
the expectancy theory to motivate employees by expressing trust in their abilities to handle their
duties, despite perceived difficulty.

2.3.4 Principles of expectancy theory

The expectancy theory states that employee’s motivation is an outcome of how much an
individual wants a reward (Valence), the assessment that the likelihood that effort will lead to
expected performance (expectancy) and the belief that the performance will lead to reward
(instrumentality). This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly
to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted
by recipients Bruce H (2008)

2.3.5 Contribution of expectancy theory

Workplace environment can be anything which exists around the employees where they
work and which affect how they carry out their work. It consists of both external and internal
conditions which can influence the working spirit and hence, reflect in their performance at
work. There exists a strong interaction between employees’ performance and physical workplace
environment. The physical environment at work is critical to employees’ performance,
satisfaction, social relations and health. The environmental conditions at the workplace are
important factors which has an influence on the employees’ morale and job satisfaction and
hence their performance. The expectancy theory has important factors to individual as follow:
 It is based on self-interest individual who want to achieve maximum satisfaction and who
wants to minimize dissatisfaction.
 This theory stresses upon the expectations and perception, what is real and actual is
immaterial
 It emphasizes on rewards or pay-offs

PART TWO: EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

AND EMPLOYEEE ENGAGEMENT IN SMEs
 A work of this nature will be incomplete without information gathered from relevant source
and analysed to practically analyse the problem. To this effect, after giving the theoretical
analysis in part one, we then proceeded to field work by collecting data from some sme’s in the
town of Douala.

This part is therefore divided into two chapters. The first one will deal with the presentation
of the area of study and method of data collection. After which in the next chapter we will
analyse and interpret the data collected to validate or not the hypotheses emitted at the beginning
of this research

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH PROCEDURES AND ADOPTED

METHODOLOGY
This chapter concerns the methodology used in carrying out our investigation. More
specifically, it presents the study site, research procedures in section one and presentation of the
instrument in section two

Section 1: Presentation of the study site and research procedures

In this section, we shall recall the problem statement and the presentation of the study site. We
equally have to look at the population of the study, the sample and variables derived from the
topic.
1.1 Presentation of the study site
According to (Hornby, 2005), area of study refers to the part of a place, town or region of
a country or world. Study site means the physical location at which a particular investigator
conducts a study. From the definition, we can define our area of study as a part of a country
Cameroon. Cameroon is divided into ten regions with each region having its capital, one of
which is Littoral with the capital being Douala. Douala is the economic captal of Cameroon and
as such it has not only a higher number of companies that te other towns but as it follows a
greater population.

Littoral region has a good number of towns and all of them contain a good number of
businesses. It is further divided into Divisions, Sub Divisions and Districts. Douala is the
biggest town in the region with commercial centers and so on. Business ranges from retailed to
large companies and offer more opportunities for students to do research. The economic climate
conditions and temperature remains conducive for all types of business. Though there are a geat
number of large companies implanted in the town especially in Bonaberi, the greater majority of
these businesses are SMEs. It however appears that even given the definition of SMEs by the
RGE as previously explained in chapter one, most companies fit in this category with their
number of workers but less with the CA

1.2 Review of the problem.

Following our simple observation and regular visit to Hotel le Sentier+, as well as coming across
some reports, we discovered that, there is poor employees’ engagement caused as regards to the
absence or inadequate performance appraisal system put in place. Employee’s engagement is
low due to absence of clear directives and absence of monitoring and feedback. PAS is used
more as a disciplinary tool than a tool for forstering and triggering engagement and performance.
Workers have no idea when or how or eve why they are evaluated. Taking a look at the
situation, it becamd clear that if PAS be used the correct way and by the right persons, it could
leave a positive impact on workers and lead the organisation to higher heights especially in a
context where there is a lot of everything an competition is rude. It for this reason that motivated
to write on the topic PERFORANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS AND EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT IN SMEs: case of selected enterprises in the town of Douala. Our research
problem is the lack of employee engagement due to an inadequate performance appraisal
system.

1.3 Review of research Question

According to Formplus on August 13, (2021), a research question is a specific inquiry which the
research seeks to provide a response to. It resides at the core of systematic investigation and
helps you to clearly define a path for the research process. It is obvious that research is
something that is not been carried out in an inexplicit manner rather, the collection of data
should be oriented toward a direction. For data to be collected, research questions must be
designed based on general and specific questions to facilitate and orientate the collection of the
data.
The research questions in this work are of two types. One the general and the other the
specific. Our general research question reads Specific Question: General research question
“What are the influence of performance appraisal systems on employee engagement? Specific
Question:
 What are the effect of measures of appraisal on physical engagement?
 What are the frequency of appraisal on employee’s cognitive engagment at work?
 What is the effect of the who appraises on employee’s emotional engagement?
It is well known that there is no question without an answer which means, before a
research goes on the field for data hunting, he or she has a firsthand tentative answers which are
verifiable to be true or not. This is done toward the end of a research work. Furthermore, these
tentative answer are known as research hypothesis.

1.4 Review of Research Hypothesis

The research questions gave rise to the hypothesis. According to Angers (1999), hypothesis is a
tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables.

1.4.1 General hypothesis

Moving from the facts that there is a relationship between resilient strategies and
employee’s performance at work in crisis zone. The general hypothesis of this study is
Performance appraisal systems have a significant effect on employee engagement.

1.4.2 Specific hypothesis

The role of specific hypothesis is aimed at rendering hypotheses operational. This
research is guided by the following specific hypotheses
SH1: Measures of appraisal positively affect employee’s cognitive engagement
SH2: Frequency of appraisal has a very significant effect on employee’s physical
engagement
SH3: who appraises has a very significant effect on emotional engagement of employees
1.5 Review of General objectives
The research objective is to study the various resilient strategies put in place to ameliorate
employee’s performance at work in crisis zones. The general objective of this study is to verify
if resilient strategies can positively influence employee’s performance at work in crisis zone.
From this general objective, we derived the following specific objectives:
To assess if resilient strategies can positively influence employee’s performance at work in
crisis zone.
Specific objectives
 To assess how the measures of performance influence the cognitive engagement of
employees in the selected companies

 To examine the effect of the frequency of appraisal on physical engagement of

employees and finally

 To assess the effects of who appraises on the emotional engagement of workers in

the selected companies
Concerning it importance on the daily activities in an organization, we intend to educate our
employees, students and the world wide that resilience is an amazing skill that helps us recover
quickly from difficulties. If you are resilient you have an innate ability to keep getting up when
life knocks you down. By so doing our interest is of the following:

1.6 Interest of the study

Our work is of interest to the managerial domain;

MANAGERIAL INTEREST: This piece of work will help managers and employees to
undesratnd the benefits behind a formal PAS andmake a bold step towards excellence..

1.1 Determination of variables

Variable, to put in layman statement is something that can change and or can have more than
one value. “A variable, as the name implies, is something that varies”. According (Kaur, 2013),
“variable is a property that takes on different values”. It is a logical grouping of attributes.
Attributes are characteristics or qualities that describes an object. In our research we have two
variables which are:

1.1.1 Independent variable

 An independent variable is the cause. Its value is independent of other variables in your
study. That is the variable you manipulate or vary in an experimental study to explore its
effects. In our study, our independent variable is Performance Appraisal System

1.1.2 Dependent variable

The dependent value is the effect. Its value depends on the changes in the dependent variables.
It’s the outcome you are interested in measuring, and it depends on your impendent variable. In
our study the dependent variable is employees engagement in SMEs.

1.2 Operationalization of Research Variables

In line with Martin E. A (2013), operationalization means turning abstract concepts into
measurable observations. This is a process of transforming ideas or concepts into quantifying
variables with the aim of measuring their frequency. Furthermore, it is clear that that to discover
new facts, find new perspectives, it is necessary to analyze all the concepts of the variables. By
so doing the main and sub elements are regrouped. The grouped elements are indicators and
modalities of the variable of the theme. It is in this light that the table below overleaf has been
drawn to reflect the liaison inherent in our characteristics
The table above is aimed at facilitating the narrowing of the variables of this writing.
Considering this, indicators are used to characterize the variables while the modalities are the
possible responses from respondents, furthermore, harmonization of the variables assisted in the
construction of the research instruments for the collection of data, which facilitated the
validation of our hypotheses and the structuring of this piece of writing. After the presentation of
research area of work and a review of our work, we shall proceed with the research
methodology.

Section Two: Presentation of Instrument used for the Data Collection

In this section we present a detail description of the research methodology that was used
in carrying out this work. The methodological approach is a set of techniques and means used to
assess the authenticity of the theoretical framework using several methods. It indicates and
justifies the data collection and investigation methods chosen (Biloa FC, 2020). For our work,
we opted for the epistemological positioning with hypothetico-deductive.

Epistemology is a way of initiating a deep reflection on knowledge and the unquenchable need
of man to satisfy his curiosity. The epistemological posture of a researcher influences the path he
will have to take to produce scientifically valid and reliable knowledge. In this regard, there are
three types of methodological postures: positivist, interpretative and constructivist. 

The positivist position aims to explain reality by giving it its own essence. In other words,
reality would exist outside of the observer and would possess an absolute ontology (Mabrouki,
2008). 
The interpretivist posture is considered as a moderate constructivism. He defends the
relativistic hypothesis according to which we can only have a single representation of
reality. However, interpretivists point out that the researcher may or may not construct reality
with the actors (Mabrouki, 2008). This section presents; research design, population of study,
sample size determination, sampling procedure, research instrument, validity and reliability of
research instrument, administration of research instrument, scoring of instruments, method of
data analysis and operational definition of key variables.
2.1 Research design

The design of this research is descriptive quantitative research. descriptive research is

also called a survey research that collected numerical data to answer question about the current
status of the subject of the study. According to Gay (2012). Descriptive research is a survey
research. This research are involves collecting data in order to test hypotheses or to answer
questions about the opinions of people` about some topic or issue.
Besides, Crewell (2012), stated that survey research designs are procedures in
quantitative research in which investigators administer a survey to sample or to the entire
population of people to describe the attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or characteristics of the
population.
Based on the statement above, it can be seen that descriptive research is a research design
where the researcher surveys the people to describe the attitude, opinions, behaviors or
characteristics that concerns with the problem exist recently. In this research, there were two
variables. This research assesses the influence of resilient strategies on employee’s performance
in NOSO.

2.2 Population of the study and Sampling size

Here we shall be studying the population and the sample size.

2.3.1 Population study.

Hornby (2005), defined a population as a total number of people who live in a particular
area, city, or country, Mirriam Webster dictionary defines a population as a whole number of
people or inhabitants in a country or region.

According to Crewell (2012), “population is a group of individuals who have the same
characteristics. In the same light, McMillan and Schumacher (2010) posit that population is a
group of elements or cases, whether individuals, objects, or events, that conform to specific
criteria and to which we intend to generalize the results of the research. The population is the
collective group, with similar characteristics, that a researcher would like to generalize the
results of the study to (Roberts, 2010).

From the above definitions, we can say the target population refers to all the employees and
some manager of the selected SMEs in Douala. The sample population here is made up of those
elements in the population that are within researcher’s reach. It includes a selected group of
employees and some manager from the companies from whom information will be taken.

2.3.1 Sample population

McMillan and Schumacher (2010), defines sample as a “group of individuals from whom
data is collected, often representative of a specific population”. Patten (2010), a sample is a
small collection or unit that represents an entire population or area, by virtue of the fact that it
contains the important characteristics or features of the lager collection or population. .
The fact that the researcher could not afford a region tour to all the companies in the
region due to rime constrains we decided to narrow the population. The population sample in
this study is made up of group of selected employees and managers from the companies that
shall be randomly selected.

2.3.2 Sampling Size

Since the number of both employees and managers of our study area is estimated to be
approximately 3019, the sample size is determined using the Yaro Yamane for a definite
population

Sample Size (n) = N

1+ Ne2
Where n= the sample size
N= the finite population
e= level of significance or limit of tolerable error (0.05)
1= a unit or a constant.
n=500/1+3019(0.05)2
n=353.
With the substitution of the above formula 353 respondents of all ranks are to be selected for
this study. Due to insecurity in town and the time this study is to be completed, the researcher
selected 75 respondents so that maximum utilization of the resources may be attained and the
time limit respected.

2.3.3 Sampling Technique

Sampling is the process of taking a subset of the subjects that is a representative of the
entire population. To conduct our research, we choose the Northwest region for convenient
reasons. Since there is no specific geographical location of companies a simplerandom sampling
was done, although we selected companies that were far apart from each other. This was to
enable a diversity in the respondents. To gather from the constituted sample population, we used
an instrument for data collection. This instrument is elaborated below.

2.2 Description of instruments used for data collection

The relevant information for the realization of this work has been collected from various
means which can be classified into two broad sources namely: the primary (field of study) and
secondary source (documentary).
 Documentary research (secondary source)
 Field study (primary source)
2.3.1 Documentary Research
According to Blumberg et al, (2009), is information already collected by another
researcher or institution for different purposes.Documentary research is defined as the research
conducted through the use of official documents or personal documents as the source of
information. In other words, documentary research is the search of documents in libraries or on
the internet for the purpose of writing documentary analyses, developing new research questions
or discussing new research results. To conduct our research, the documentary research was the
capital source of information used in building up the first part of our study. The document
includes text books published by renown authors, we also went to companies to find out for
ourselves the performance of employees in the different companies.

2.3.1.1 Manual Source:

It is carried in libraries. A library is a documentary warehouse which regroup
documents of all sorts including books, newspapers, research work etc. the user consults the
documents corresponding to the theme which interest her/him. If the research is based on a
single keyword, it is sufficient to simply extract all keyword. The school library of ENSET
Douala was of great help to us, and personal reference books.

2.3.1.2 Automatic Source (documentary research on internet):

The internet is the most efficient source of documentary research. Moreover, even old
works are digitized and made accessible on the internet. Internet research is carried out through
search engines such as Google or Google scholar.

2.3.2 Field of study

Primary source of data was gotten through questionnaires and interviews. This source provides
direct and first information about an event, person etc, that is an experiment.
2.3.2.1 Interview
Interview can refer to a meeting at which somebody is asked some questions in order to
find out his views on an issue. This is exactly what we carried out with some managers and
employees on 13th April 2022 of the said micro institutions to be able us determine our
hypothesis. This interview was to identify their individual notions on how readjustment of work
schedule and a new system of communication put in place have been able to help them obtain
their objective.

2.3.2.2 Questionnaire
Questionnaire is a document containing questions and other types of items designed to
solicit information appropriate to analysis. Saul McLeod (2018), questionnaire is a research
instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from
respondents. Thus, it provides a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large
amounts of information from a large sample of people.
AashishPahwa (2021), A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a set of
standardized questions to gather statistically useful information on some subject from one or
more respondents.
According to Hornby, op/ cit (2000), a questionnaire is a written document or printed list
pf questions to be answered by a people, especially to collect data for a study.

2.3.2.2.1 Objective of questionnaire

The main objective of questionnaire is to obtain relevant information in most reliable and
valid manner. Therefore, the objective enables us to gather information in order to conclude that
resilient strategies positively affects employee’s performance at work in crisis zone. Our
questionnaires were conceived and distributed to some selected companies mentioned above to
verify if resilient strategies have an influence on employee’s performance at work in crisis zone.

2.3.2.2.2 Types of questionnaire

There are two types of questionnaire, structured and unstructured, a mixture of these both
is quasi-structured questionnaire that is used mostly in social science research.
Structured questionnaires include pre-coded questions with well-defined skipping patterns to
follow the sequence of questions. Most of the quantitative data collection operations use
structured questionnaires. Advantages of such structured questionnaires are - less discrepancies,
easy to administer, consistency in answers and easy for the data management.
 Unstructured questionnaires include open ended and vague opinion-type questions. Maybe
questions are not in the format of interrogative sentences and moderator or the enumerator has to
elaborate the sense of question. Focus group discussions use such questionnaire. Not all
questions are easily pre-coded with almost possible alternatives of answers. Given answer
alternatives of some questions in standard questionnaire are left as 'others' (please specify).
A common and pragmatic practice is that most of the questions are structured, however, it is
comfortable to have some unstructured questions whose answers are not feasible to enumerate
completely. Such a type of questionnaire is called as quasi-structured questionnaire.
In order to elicit information on resilient strategy and employee’s performance, the
researcher used both structured questionnaires and personal interview as major instruments to
sample the opinions of the respondents. The questionnaires were constructed in relation to the
research questions, hypotheses and with the help of literature review. Two sets of questionnaires
were used for data collection. The questionnaires were developed for completion by the
managers and employees of the selected companies respectively.
These questionnaires comprise close-ended used for the purpose of ensuring uniformity and
more effective comparison between responses given by the various respondents in each
category. Closed ended questions are easily coded and analyzed. The questions were developed
on a five point Likert scales ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
 Table des matières
DEDICATION................................................................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.................................................................................................................................2
FOREWORD..................................................................................................................................................3
LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................................5
LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................................................7
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.........................................................................................................................8
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................9
RESUME......................................................................................................................................................10
SUMMARY..................................................................................................................................................11
GENERAL INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................12
CHAPTER ONE: CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.....................................................................................................................19
Section 1: Conceptual framework of performance appraisal systems.........................................................19
1.1 Definition, evolution of performance appraisal systems and related concepts.........................19
1.2 Dimensions of performance appraisal.......................................................................................24
1.3 Types of performance appraisal systems...................................................................................29
Section 2: Conceptual background of employee engagement.....................................................................42
2.1 Definition and evolution of employee engagement....................................................................42
2.2 Dimensions of employee engagement.......................................................................................46
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT.....................................................................................................................50
Section 1: Presentation of theoretical juncture of performance appraisal and employee engagement.........50
1.1 Impact and challenges of performance appraisal.......................................................................50
Beneficial to employees.........................................................................................................................50
Constant Feedback................................................................................................................................51
Facilitate setting of future organizational plans....................................................................................51
Serve as performance data sheet..........................................................................................................52
Inconsistency in effectiveness of performance appraisal.......................................................................52
Inadequacy in performance appraisal systems......................................................................................53
Errors in organizational systems............................................................................................................54
Negative feedback.................................................................................................................................54
Regular and Quality Discussions............................................................................................................55
Wider Input into the Discussion.............................................................................................................56
Committed and Capable Managers.......................................................................................................57
 Strong Leadership..................................................................................................................................58
Align with Organizational Goals............................................................................................................59
Tailored to Suit Employees Requirements..............................................................................................60
Use of Technology.................................................................................................................................62
Monitored systems................................................................................................................................63
Reward land Recognition.......................................................................................................................64
Constant Feedback................................................................................................................................64
Section 2: Theories of performance appraisal and employee engagement..................................................65
1.2 Theoretical framework...............................................................................................................65
This Research shall be guided by 3 theories provided by Mabey, Salman and John Stacey Adams......65
Mabey has prescribed the model for performance appraisal in the form of “performance appraisal
cycle‟. This cycle has 5 elements which suggest how performance appraisal should be managed in
an organization. The elements of the performance appraisal system cycle include:............................65
Bibliographie.................................................................................................................................................72
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the future. Journal of Compensation and Benefits, 23(2), 28-34.

M.M Harris, D. E. (1995). A field study of performance appraisal purpose: Research versus
administrative - based ratings. Personal Psychology, Vol. 48 No.1, page 151.

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Resistance to Organisational Change. International Journal of Organisational Analysis,
202-216.

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Carreer Development International.

Spriegel, R. (1962). „Company practices in appraisal of managerial performance‟. Personnel. Sudin, S.

(2011). 'Fairness of and Satisfaction with performance appraisal process'. Journal of

Global Management, Page 66-83.

Armstrong, M. (1988). A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice 3rd Edition. London: Kogan Page
Ltd.

B. Keilor, J. T. (2001). Are performance appraisals a bureaucratic exercise or can they be used to
enhance sales-force satisfaction and commitment? . Journal of Psychology and Marketing, 18(4):
337-364.

Balking, M.-G. a. (2001). Managing Human Resources (3rd Edition). . Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Bell, A. B. (2007). Business Research Methods, 2nd Edition. England: Oxford University Press. Bernardin,

J. (1984). Performance appraisal: Assesing human behaviour at work. Kent, Boston.

Boice, D. F. (n.d.). Designing Effective Peformance Appraisal Systems. Work Study, 46(6): 197- 201.

Boucdreau, W. B. (2012). Separating the Development and Evaluative Performance Appraisal Usage.
Journal of Psychology., 16 (3), 391-411.

Boudreau, R. B. (2000). ). Employee satisfaction with performance appraisals and appraisers: The role
of perceived appraisal use. . Human Resource Developement Quarterly, Vol. 11 No. 3 pp. 283.

Brown, D. (1987). Developement of Performance Standards. A practical guide , public personnel

management , 17: 278-402.

C.H Cassey, S.-A. H. (2005). Performance management in the UK public sector. . International
Journal of Public Sector Management , Vol. 18, No. 3, page 256-273.
Cook, D. B. (1984). „Ethical Dilemmas in Performance Appraisal‟. Journal of Business Ethics,
3(4): 327-333.

D. Robert, B. a. (n.d.). Performance Appraisal Research and Practice: Concerns, Directions, and
Implications‟. Journal of Management.

DanielWiese, S. P. (2000). Performance Appraisal: An obstacle to Training and Developement?

Journal of European Industrial Trainning, Vol. 24 No. 7 Page 388-391.

Dobbins, L. R. (1986). Affect and Appraisal Accuracy: Linking as an integral dimension in evaluating
peformance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71: 672-678.

English, G. (1991). Tuning up for performance management. . Training and Developement

Journal, 45 (4), 56-61.

Ford., K. D. (2004). Development of a Performance Appraisal Training Program for the

Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Journal of European Industrial Training., Vol. 28.
no. 7 page 550-563.

Forrest, F. (2009). Performance Appraisal Systems in Higher Education: . An Explanation of

Christian Institution . University of Florida (Doctoral Dissertation.

Freeman., J. (2002). How to improve the effectiveness of performance management and

appraisal by overcoming the root cause of the problem. Retrieved from The HRM Guide
Network: www.hrmguide.com\performance

Harris, M. M. (1994). Rater motivation in the performance appraisal context: A theoritical framework.
Journal of Management, 20(4): 737.

Hartman, C. C. (2000). Organizational Commitment: Method Scale Analysis and Test of Effects.

. International Journal of Analysis, 8, 89-109.

Hoffman. (1995). Ten reasons why you should be using 360 – degree feedback. HR Magazine, Vol. 40
No.4, page 82-6.

Irvine-Piggot, E. (2003). Key Features of Appraisal Effectiveness. The International Journal of

Educational Management, Vol. 17(4/5): 170-177.

J. G Grigories, C. R. (2003). A field study of effects of rating purpose on the quality of

multisource ratings. Personal Psychology., Vol. 56 No. 1, page 1-21.

J. Schaubroeck, M. Y. (2002). Responses to formal performance appraisal feedback. The role of negative
affectivity. Journal of Applied Psychology., 87 (1), 192-201.

Jacobs, J. A. (1988). Link Job Descriptions to Performance Appraisals. Personnel Journal, 132- 140.
Jenipher., A. (2013). Perceived Influenced of Performance Appraisal Criteria on Employee Job
Satistfaction in Kenya Airways University of Nairobi (Master's thesis).

Joseph, A. (2014). Assessing the Performance Appraisal Concept of the Local Government Service in
Ghana.

Kavanagh, J. W. (1988). Improving the Accuracy of Performance Evaluations: Comparism of Three

Methods of Peformance Appraisal Training. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73(1), 68-73.

Kavanagh, M. (1997). I simply want to know how well I am doing! . Group and Organisation
Management, Vol. 22 No. 2, page 147-148.

Kevin, G. S. (2006). Integrating Leadership Development and Succession Planning Best Practices.

Lee, C. (1985). Increasing Performance Appraisal Effectiveness: Matching Task.

Lepsinger, G. y. (1995). How to get the most of 360 degree feedback. . Training, Vol. 32 No 12. page 45-
50.

Lester, T. J. (2000). Integrating the Three Domains of Employee Commitment. An Exploratory

Study. Journal of Applied Business Research, 16(4) 15-26.

Levy, R. W. (2004). The social context of performance appraisal: A review and framework for
the future. Journal of Compensation and Benefits, 23(2), 28-34.

M.M Harris, D. E. (1995). A field study of performance appraisal purpose: Research versus
administrative - based ratings. Personal Psychology, Vol. 48 No.1, page 151.

Mubeena, A. K. (n.d.). Types Appraisal Process and Rater Training. Academy Of Management
Review, pages 322-331.

Neck, C. P. (1996). Thought of Self Leadership: A Regulatory Approach Toward Overcoming

Resistance to Organisational Change. International Journal of Organisational Analysis,
202-216.

Purcell, P. B. (2003). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke, England.

Robbins, A. D. (2002). HumanResource Management. John Wiley and Sons., 7th Edition. Seide.,

F. O.-M. (2012). „Employees' Perception of Performance.

Spinks, N. (1999). Appraising the appraisals: Computerized performance appraisal systems.

Carreer Development International.

Spriegel, R. (1962). „Company practices in appraisal of managerial performance‟. Personnel. Sudin, S.

(2011). 'Fairness of and Satisfaction with performance appraisal process'. Journal of

Global Management, Page 66-83.