The document discusses several traditional methods of performance appraisal, including rating scales, checklists, forced distribution, critical incident reports, essays, and cost accounting approaches. Rating scales involve rating traits like attitude and performance on a 1-10 scale. Checklists involve assessing employees based on yes/no questions. Forced distribution requires ranking employees into categories like excellent, good, poor based on comparisons to others.

1. Tradition Method Of
Performance Appraisal
By Jai Rane

2. Definition
• According to Newstrom, “It is the process of
evaluating the performance of employees, sharing
that information with them and searching for ways
to improve their performance’’.

3. Meaning
• Performance appraisal is the step where the
management finds out how effective it has been at
hiring and placing employees .
• A “Performance appraisal” is a process of
evaluating an employee’s performance of a job in
terms of its requirements.

4. Rating Scale
• Creating Scales Method is commonly used method for assessing the performance
of the employees and well-known traditional method of performance appraisal of
employees. Many corporations and companies example in the country India,
telecommunications company likely airtel and US IT companies like Dell
Corporation are using this method for evaluating the employees and subsequently
take decisions on concerned employee.
• Depending upon the job of employee under this method of appraisal traits like
attitude, performance, regularity, accountability and sincerity etc. are rated with
scale from 1 to 10. 1 indicates negative feedback and 10 indicates positive
feedback as shown below.

5. Checklist
• A checklist represents, in its simplest form, a set of objectives or descriptive
statements about the employee and his behaviour. If the rater believes strongly
that the employee possesses a particular listed trait, he checks the item;
otherwise, he leaves the item blank. A more recent variation of the checklist
method is the weighted list. Under this, the value of each question may be
weighted equally or certain questions may be weighted more heavily than others.
The following are some of the sample questions in the checklist.
• Is the employee really interested in the task assigned? Yes/No
• Is he respected by his colleagues (co-workers) Yes/No
• Does he give respect to his superiors? Yes/No
• Does he follow instructions properly? Yes/No
• Does he make mistakes frequently? Yes/No

6. Forced
Distribution
The system is 17 to 18 years old, and most big
organisations started waking up to this form of
performance appraisal in the late '90s. The bell
curve is nothing but a graphical representation of
the fact that everybody's performance is not the
same. Some employees will be outstanding, some
average, and others at the bottom. Irrespective of
whether or not the bell curve is the most
appropriate representation of performance or
human behaviour, some believe that it is the most
viable option, especially in services-driven sectors,
which have large workforces.
The system requires the managers to evaluate each
individual, and rank them typically into one of three
categories (excellent, good, poor). The system is
thought to be relatively widely-used, but remains
somewhat controversial due to the competition it
creates, and also the reality that not all employees
will fit neatly into one of the categories and might
end up in a category that does not reflect their true
performance. One of the first companies to use this
system was General Electric, in the 1980s.

7. Critical Incident Method
• This technique of performance appraisal was developed by Flanagan and Burns.
• The manager prepares lists of statements of very effective and ineffective behaviour of
an employee. These critical incidents or events represent the outstanding or poor
behaviour of employees on the job. The manager maintains logs on each employee,
whereby he periodically records critical incidents of the workers behaviour. At the end
of the rating period, these recorded critical incidents are used in the evaluation of the
workers’ performance. An example of a good critical incident of a sales assistant is the
following:-
• July 20 – The sales clerk patiently attended to the customers complaint. He is polite,
prompt, enthusiastic in solving the customers’ problem.
• On the other hand the bad critical incident may appear as under:
• July 20 – The sales assistant stayed 45 minutes over on his break during the busiest
part of the day. He failed to answer the store manager’s call thrice. He is lazy,
negligent, stubborn and uninterested in work.

8. Essay Method
• This traditional form of appraisal, also known as “Free Form method” involves a
description of the performance of an employee by his superior. The description is an
evaluation of the performance of any individual based on the facts and often includes
examples and evidences to support the information. A major drawback of the method
is the inseparability of the bias of the evaluator.
• Under this method, the rater is asked to express the strong as well as weak points of
the employee’s behaviour. This technique is normally used with a combination of the
graphic rating scale because the rater can elaborately present the scale by
substantiating an explanation for his rating. While preparing the essay on the
employee, the rater considers the following factors:
• Job knowledge and potential of the employee;
• Employee’s understanding of the company’s programmes, policies, objectives, etc.;
• The employee’s relations with co-workers and superiors;
• The employee’s general planning, organizing and controlling ability;
• The attitudes and perceptions of the employee, in general.

9. Cost Accounting Approach
• Cost accounting is a task of collecting, analysing,
summarizing and evaluating various alternative courses of
action. Its goal is to advise the management on the most
appropriate course of action based on the cost efficiency
and capability. Cost accounting provides the detailed cost
information that management needs to control current
operations and plan for the future.