This document discusses the meaning of performance appraisals and fairness in the context of changing views in society. It notes that some now see rewards as disconnected from work effort, eroding the concept of meritocracy. This contributes to calls for eliminating annual performance reviews. The document also outlines several common performance appraisal methods, their advantages and disadvantages, including ranking, rating scales, checklists, critical incidents, essays, and behaviorally anchored rating scales. It provides additional resources on topics related to the meaning of performance appraisals.

1. Meaning of performance appraisal
In this file, you can ref useful information about meaning of performance appraisal such as
meaning of performance appraisal methods, meaning of performance appraisal tips, meaning of
performance appraisal forms, meaning of performance appraisal phrases … If you need more
assistant for meaning of performance appraisal, please leave your comment at the end of file.
Other useful material for you:
• performanceappraisal123.com/1125-free-performance-review-phrases
• performanceappraisal123.com/free-28-performance-appraisal-forms
• performanceappraisal123.com/free-ebook-11-methods-for-performance-appraisal
I. Contents of getting meaning of performance appraisal
==================
There has been a lot of discussion in the HR blog world of late regarding the subject of
performance appraisal. More and more people are dismissing the importance of the performance
appraisal process. There are a number of arguments that have been used, most of which I have
always said have more to do with the user than it does with the tool. But now I am not so sure. I
am beginning to think it may have as much to do with a changing view of the concept of
“fairness” in our society. So I wanted to get you thinking along those lines as the trend develops
and people apply a new definition of “fairness” to the performance appraisal process.
Annual Review: Fairness vs Unfairness
What got me thinking along these lines was a very interesting opinion piece by Arthur C.
Brooks, published in the Wall Street Journal. In Fairness and the ‘Occupy’ movement, Brooks
discusses the two sides of the movement. He writes:
“…they are not so wrong in indicting our system today for unfairness, and for being wracked
with crony capitalism, insider dealings and corruption. What is a fair economic system? Some
define it in terms of forced income redistribution. The overwhelming majority of Americans,
however, believe fairness means rewarding merit, even if that means some people have a lot
more than others.”
He then gives the example:

2. “Imagine two secretaries, of the same age, doing practically the same job. One finds out that the
other earns considerably more than she does. The better paid secretary, however, is quicker,
more efficient and more reliable at her job.” When asked if it was fair that one secretary be paid
more than the other, 88.6% of respondents answered that it was fair indeed.”
From this he says:
According to the meritocratic definition of fairness, we have been getting less fair as a nation
with every new redistributive policy and regulation that unnecessarily hinders entrepreneurship.
Greater fairness means rewarding hard work and innovation—not handing out stimulus cash to
politically well-connected corporations and campaign donors.
Employee Reviews: Decline of Meritocracy
In a response to Mr. Brooks’ essay Terry Peters of Richmond, Virginia wrote a letter entitled
Future Will Be Shaped by Our Definition of ‘Fairness’, in which he makes the comment “But
many now believe that rewards are disconnected from work effort and value-added. Democrats
have for decades worked to erode faith in the American meritocracy, exploiting resentments and
envy for political advantage. The media and academia generally stoke that sense of systemic
unfairness.”
After reading this I reflected on the decline of “meritocracy” in our society and hence our
business system. Today we don’t reward merit especially when it comes to employee reviews as
much as we perhaps have done in the past. We are bringing up children to not distinguish
themselves. In ball games there are no “winners.” Teachers are not allowed to mark papers using
the color red. Everyone gets a certificate or trophy. I am sure you can probably think of some
example as well. So is there any surprise when we ask a young person today what “fair” is that
they respond that “everyone gets something” aka “wealth distribution’?
Misused Performance Appraisal
Combine that with a misuse of the tool of performance appraisal and a changing emphasis from
“individual” to “team” that many companies now have you can more easily see why there are so
many calls to get rid of annual reivew.
Of course what does that lead to? You emphasize results and we have seen that in the
development of “Results Only Work Environments” or ROWE. The problem with this is all of us
know that people do not work with equal effort. So where does “fairness” come into play as we
distribute the rewards for accomplishment? Or do we forego rewards all together?
Anyway I wanted to get you thinking along these lines since it is going to be a developing
concern for HR departments and businesses as we get the generational shifts occurring in our

3. workforces. Help me develop my thinking on this subject. What else should I be considering? Do
you have some great annual review tips or suggestions? I do come from the “meritocracy”
school of thought so let me know if or how I need to be changing.
==================
III. Performance appraisal methods
1.Ranking Method
The ranking system requires the rater to rank his
subordinates on overall performance. This consists in
simply putting a man in a rank order. Under this method,
the ranking of an employee in a work group is done
against that of another employee. The relative position of
each employee is tested in terms of his numerical rank. It
may also be done by ranking a person on his job
performance against another member of the competitive
group.
Advantages of Ranking Method
i. Employees are ranked according to their performance
levels.
ii. It is easier to rank the best and the worst employee.
Limitations of Ranking Method
i. The “whole man” is compared with another “whole man”
in this method. In practice, it is very difficult to compare
individuals possessing various individual traits.
ii. This method speaks only of the position where an
employee stands in his group. It does not test anything
about how much better or how much worse an employee
is when compared to another employee.
iii. When a large number of employees are working, ranking
of individuals become a difficult issue.
iv. There is no systematic procedure for ranking individuals
in the organization. The ranking system does not eliminate
the possibility of snap judgements.
2. Rating Scale

4. Rating scales consists of several numerical scales
representing job related performance criterions such as
dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc.
Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total
numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are
derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost,
every type of job can be evaluated, large number of
employees covered, no formal training required.
Disadvantages – Rater’s biases
3. Checklist method
Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of
employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is
prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or
checking and HR department does the actual evaluation.
Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited
training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters
biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow
rater to give relative ratings
4. Critical Incidents Method
The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of
employee that makes all the difference in the
performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record
such incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on
actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by
descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases,
chances of subordinate improvement are high.
Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized,
forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback
may be too much and may appear to be punishment.

5. 5. Essay Method
In this method the rater writes down the employee
description in detail within a number of broad categories
like, overall impression of performance, promoteability
of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of
performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training
needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely
useful in filing information gaps about the employees
that often occur in a better-structured checklist.
Disadvantages – It its highly dependent upon the writing
skills of rater and most of them are not good writers.
They may get confused success depends on the memory
power of raters.
6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
statements of effective and ineffective behaviors
determine the points. They are said to be
behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to
say, which behavior describes the employee
performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating
errors. Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions
inherent in most rating techniques.
III. Other topics related to Meaning of performance appraisal (pdf download)
• Top 28 performance appraisal forms
• performance appraisal comments
• 11 performance appraisal methods
• 25 performance appraisal examples
• performance appraisal phrases
• performance appraisal process
• performance appraisal template

6. • performance appraisal system
• performance appraisal answers
• performance appraisal questions
• performance appraisal techniques
• performance appraisal format
• performance appraisal templates
• performance appraisal questionnaire
• performance appraisal software
• performance appraisal tools
• performance appraisal interview
• performance appraisal phrases examples
• performance appraisal objectives
• performance appraisal policy
• performance appraisal letter
• performance appraisal types
• performance appraisal quotes
• performance appraisal articles