A study of system execution of performance appraisal

Abstract

Dissatisfaction with traditional performance appraisal (PA) has led some organizations to eliminate formal reviews entirely and to substitute alternative methods of performance feedback, while other firms search for ways to improve the formal process. This study attempts to contribute to the ongoing debate about the future of PA by investigating the effects of an understudied aspect of the PA process: how well the PA system is executed by the supervisor. Our results indicate that system execution explains a significant amount of variance in intention to improve over and above a host of variables studied in previous PA studies, and that these effect sizes suggest clear practical significance.