Book Synopsis The Appraisal Interview Reappraised by :
Download or read book The Appraisal Interview Reappraised written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The appraisal interview is one of the most ubiquitous features of life in organisations. It is also one of the most ridiculed. Evidence mounts each year to the effect that most such interviews are poorly managed, fail to improve organisational performance, demoralise employees and subject the managers who administer them to intolerable levels of stress. No wonder that one researcher, unkindly but accurately, has described them as the annual fiasco (Pickett, 2003, p.237). It is typical of the data that a conference of human resources professionals found over 90% of those present declaring that, if given the chance, they would modify, revise or even eliminate the performance appraisal system currently used in their organisations (HR Focus, 2000). Thus, appraisal interviews are governed by some seemingly impregnable assumptions that research nevertheless suggests may be invalid - e.g. that organisations are rational entities, administrative systems are highly reliable, and most people can be trained to be unbiased and candid in their assessments of others (McCauley, 1997). Some have even argued that traditional appraisals are so inherently dysfunctional that they need to be abolished altogether (e.g. Coens and Jenkins, 2000). Their ongoing popularity represents another instance of hope triumphing over experience. This chapter therefore offers a different perspective to that often found in the literature, particularly practitioner guides that instruct on how to. Firstly, I define what appraisal interviews are and outline the range of roles they are expected to perform. Flowing from this, the voluminous evidence that indicates why appraisals generally fail to work is reviewed. It would be tempting to outline a series of steps and skills that appear to avoid these problems, as many texts do (e.g. Bacal, 2003; Sandler and Keefe, 2003). However, the conclusion offered here is that such piecemeal perspectives are more likely to compound the problem than resolve it. In pa.
