1. In your opinion, and from an HRM perspective, what are the objectives of employee performance evaluation? According to the text, an organization’s employee performance evaluations should define, measure, monitor and provide feedback to an employee about their job performance; i.e. how effectively they have been working. The text also states, and in my opinion is of higher importance, that the role of a performance evaluation is the setting of job standards to ensure that the employee’s productivity and focus are in alignment with the mission and vision of the company to help execute the ultimate purpose for the company’s existence. By setting an employee’s performance objectives in line with the organization’s performance goals, a competitive advantage can be gained by capitalizing on individual employees’ strengths and competencies. Other uses for performance evaluations that have been well designed, according to the textbook, may be to further enhance employee development, motivate and encourage employees to take on more responsibility or initiative, develop an inventory of employee skills for better human resource planning, help increase communications between supervisors and employees, fulfill a legal requirement to defend HR actions, and they can also provide HRM research tools to evaluate and/or validate selection processes, testing tools, etc.
2. On the basis of these objectives, evaluate the perspectives about performance appraisal presented by the managers. Each of the four managers is utilizing the performance appraisal system setup by their company in ways that were more than likely unintended by upper management. The case study focuses on the feedback portion of the performance appraisal so a full understanding of how the set of traits provided by the company in the graphic rating scale is not provided. The managers do not provide insight into whether or not they agree with the characteristics they