Human Resource Management

Limitations of performance appraisal

Limitations of performance appraisal

Performance appraisals are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations.Performance appraisal is defined by Wayne Cascio as “the systematic description of employee’s job relevant, strength, weakness.

The following are the limitations of performance appraisal:

Halo effect :-

In this case the superior appraises the person on certain positive qualities only. The negative traits are not considered. Such an appraisal will no give a true picture about the employee. And in some cases employees who do not deserve promotions may get it.

Horn effect :-

In this case only the negative qualities of the employee are considered and based on this appraisal is done. This again will not help the organization because such appraisal may not present a true picture about the employee.

 Central tendency :-

In this case the superior gives an appraisal by giving central values. This prevents a really talented employee from getting promotions he deserves and some employees who do not deserve any thing may get promotion.

 Leniency and strictness :-

Some bosses are lenient in grading their employees while some are very strict. Employee who really deserves promotions may loose the opportunity due to strict bosses while those who may not deserve may get benefits due to lenient boss.

 Spill over effect :-

In this case the employee is judged +vely or –vely by the boss depending upon the past performance. Therefore although the employee may have improved performance, he may still not get the benefit.

Fear of loosing subordinates and spoiling relations :-

Many bosses do not wish to spoil their relations with their subordinates. Therefore when they appraise the employee they may end up giving higher grades which are not required. This is a n injustice to really deserving employees.

 Goodwill and techniques to be used :-

Sometimes a very strict appraisal may affect the goodwill between senior and junior. Similarly when different departments in the same company use different methods of appraisal it becomes very difficult to compare employees.

Paper work and personal biased :-

Appraisal involves a lot of paper work. Due to this the work load of HR department increases. Personal bias and prejudice result in bosses favoring certain people and not favoring others.

 Limitations of performance appraisal