Employee performance appraisal theories and techniques

Employee performance appraisal theories and techniques Performance appraisal is to assess and evaluate the performance of employees towards the objectives of the organisation. Performance appraisal has now become a very important part of human resource management. Performance appraisal is the basis for other personnel programs in many of the organisations like counselling, salary administration, or personnel planning. With the decline of careers in organisation, HRM techniques such as performance appraisal has become more important in motivating and controlling the workforce. Appraisal is now seen by some commentators as being much more significant in maintaining employee loyalty and commitment than in directly managing performance (Bowles and Coates, 1993). Use of performance appraisal gives the manager opportunity to change corporate values which are important instrument in control process. Thus we find a growing use of appraisal systems for non-managerial employees that are based on social, attitudinal and trait attributes (Townley, 1 989). Employees are now being appraised not only on objective measures such as attendance, productivity and quality but also on subjective measures such as flexibility, loyalty etc. performance appraisal helps in increasing the efficiency of workforce which in turn helps in achieving the objectives set by an organisation. Performance appraisal is one of the most important components in the systematic approach of Human Resource Management. Performance appraisal is the process of assessing and evaluating the performance of employees according to the objectives of the organisation. Performance appraisal is defined as a procedure which involves the regular use of recorded assessment of an individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performance and potential (Phil Long (1986). Performance Appraisal Revisited. 2nd ed. London: IPM Information and Advisory Services. 5.). A primary aim of the performance appraisal is to measure the performance of an individual against the given objectives. Performance appraisal includes the employees, management, supervisors and the units those are most responsible in the organisation. Manual staffs such as skilled employees and employees with technical duties are also subject to appraisal. Many organisations use performance appraisal even for other personnel programs, like counselling, sal ary administration, promotions or personnel planning etc. It acts as a means of communication between the boss and the sub ordinates required by the company or organisation. There are many possible uses of performance appraisal, but a wise user of the technique will choose among the possibilities and confine performance appraisal to those activities that will meet limited, specific goals (Patricia King (1984). Performance Planning and Appraisal. New York: McGraw-Hill. 7.). Performance appraisal system helps in measuring the performance of individuals against the set objectives of the organisation and the tasks provided to an individual, and rewarding them accordingly. It is also the basis for recruiting the new people, provide feed back, increase motivation, identify potential, study the skills of the employees, training to be provided according to the objectives and the work given and let people know that what is expected from them against the organisation and solve the job problem s. A change in payment systems has also helped in growth and development of performance appraisal. Reward systems and increased use of merit and performance have been associated with the development of performance appraisal. It would be clear that performance appraisal practices those are operating from past ten years or so may be effective in many organisations today. New developments has reduced the role of performance appraisal, they now are being used as a measure to achieve organisational objectives, considerable experimentation and innovation. In fact performance appraisal has become more wide spread. New forms of appraisals have also been developed. Development of performance appraisal: Informal system of performance appraisal exists as long as people work together; evaluation of employees at work is the universal tendency. The history of formal system of performance appraisal is short. With the new developments performance appraisal has become an important element of human resource management. Wide ranges of methods are used to conduct the performance appraisals such as from ranking schemes and competency based systems to complex behaviourally anchored rating schemes. Performance appraisalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s nature is mostly based on the objectives of management and the available resources for commitment. Simpler ranking and rating schemes are adopted by the small organisations with limited HR expertise, where as schemes such as competency based and 360o appraisal are adopted by the larger organisations. Most of the managements use only one type of appraisal system. Some organisations provide the choice for employees about methods in how they should be appraised. F ew organisations adopt multiple systems to separate reward and non reward aspects of appraisal and different systems to different occupational groups and different parts of the organisation. Appraisal Systems: Appraisal system formulates the review part of the performance cycle. Appraisal systems are designed on a central basis by personnel function, each manager evaluate the performance of their staff on an annual, six-monthly or even quarterly basis. Traditionally appraisal system has been applicable to the staff those are in higher management and supervisory positions, but with new developments it has also applicable even to the clerical staff and secretarial staff. Appraisal systems are been applicable in all the parts of the organisation for the better performance of the employees. It tends to assess the performance of the employees and reward them accordingly. Appraisal system can be used to identify the problems and improve current performance, provide feedback. It also can be used to set the organisation objectives, provide information to the HR personnel, selection process and as a reward or punishments. Appraisal can be divided into three categories, reward reviews, potential reviews, and performance reviews, and the appraisal system should satisfy at least one of those. Manager should be very careful in reviewing the primary purpose of the appraisal system. Source: www.rose.edu/faculty/bperryman/f6.pdf Performance Appraisal Methods and Techniques: The techniques to evaluate the performance appraisal can be grouped into three categories: Comparative, Absolute and Outcome or Result-oriented. Comparative Methods: These techniques help in evaluation the performance of the employees in a work group. Three main procedures which are used in performance judgements are paired comparisons, raking and forced distribution. Paired comparisons: In this method appraiser compares the pair of individuals, rating which employee is better. This could be based on the overall performance of the job or one specific trait. A rank order is obtained from the number of times each individual is selected as the better of a pair (Phil Long (1986). Performance Appraisal Revisited. 2nd ed. London: IPM Information and Advisory Services). Ranking: Rater requires listing the group of individuals and ranking them according to the merit from best to worst. In this procedure a single performance trait is used to evaluate the overall performance of employees towards the objectives. Forced distribution: This procedure combines both paired comparisons and ranking methods. Individuals receive a rating and also assigned to categories according to predetermined distribution. Absolute Methods: This method evaluates the performance of an individual by reference to standards of performance. Techniques include narrative approach, graphic or trait rating scales, critical incidents and behavioural anchored rating scales. Narrative Approach: This method describes the individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s work performance and behaviour in the words of appraiser. The appraiser describes the strengths, weaknesses and potential of an individual and also suggest for improvements that are required. Appraiser can explain in the form of essay or written report. Narrative procedures have the benefit that they can explain and provide information regarding the individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performance. Trait Rating Scales: This is highly structured scale which consists of a list of personality traits. The appraiser should indicate the performance of an individual on a numerical scale for which individual is being appraised have these traits. A variation of this is the graphic rating scale which requires the rater to evaluate the individual on each of several defined qualities along a line containing a variety of objectives from very high to very low (Phil Long (1986). Performance Appraisal Revisited. 2nd ed. London: IPM Information and Advisory Services). Critical incident techniques: In this method rater explains the positive and negative behavioural events which have been observed within a review period. It is more suitable for performance feedback discussions. Behavioural Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): BARS is one of the prominent behaviour scaling techniques which determine the behaviour ratings and actually constitute job performance. This methodology is carried out using typical BARS instruments which constitute of series of vertical scales. Each scale determines performance dimension based on job requirements and past observations. The behaviour anchors observed determines the work performance of the individual. Results-oriented Methods: These methods are mostly based on specific accomplishments and outcomes of job performance rather than behaviours. Assessment is based on how the objectives have been achieved. Objectives being jointly agreed between the superior and subordinate and standards are set by discussion and negotiation. As the standards are known the procedure can be corrected as they develop. To study the role of performance appraisal, different appraisal systems, models and how are these helpful in evaluation of employee performance in order to achieve the organisational objectives. To study about performance appraisal systems, methods and techniques. How the appraisal systems are developed and implemented in the real context to achieve the objectives. To study the advantages and disadvantages of different performance appraisal methods. This data has already been published and while using this data the researcher should be very careful about the validity and reliability. Researcher should get the data which has been recently published as it will be more applicable to the present scenario. The data used by researcher in this report is mostly from books, electronic journals, and websites and research journals. Secondary includes both quantitative and qualitative data, and they can be used in both descriptive and explanatory research. Types of secondary data: Documentary data, Survey-based data, and those compiled from multiple sources. Documentary secondary data includes written documents and non written documents. Written documents include books, journals, magazine articles, newspaper and internet. Non-written documents such as pictures, drawings, television programme. Multiple-source secondary data can be based entirely on documentary or any survey data, or can combination of the two. Data collected will be analysed with the help of diagrams, graphs, pie charts and etc. Qualitative data collected from all the possible sources will help in achieving the objectives of dissertation. Saunders et al (2003) claims that there is no standard approach to analyzing qualitative data but discuss one technique where the data are disaggregated into meaningful categories that are subsequently rearranged and analyzed for related data and key themes. The dissertation will be presented in written form meeting the requirements laid down in the Individual Research Dissertation Handbook. And soft copies will be provided in the desirable standard format. Dissertation Time Plan (what are the key times) Meet the appointed lecturer and start with dissertation Finish the introduction and literature review Analyze Data and Interpret data using different data analysis tools and techniques Update Literature Review Complete dissertation by drawing conclusion Submit Dissertation Phil Long (1986). Performance Appraisal Revisited. 2nd ed. London: IPM Information and Advisory Services Patricia King (1984). Performance Planning and Appraisal. New York: McGraw-Hill. Tom Redman, Adrian Wilkinson (2001). Contemporary Human Resource Management. London: Prentice Hall. 57-95. Derek Torrington and Laura Hall (1995). Personal Management. 3rd ed. London: Prentice Hall. 316-331. Stephen Pilbeam and Marjorie Corbridge (2002). People Resourcing HRM in Practice. 2nd ed. London: FT Prentice Hall. 258-283. John P Wilson (1999). Human Resource Development. London: Kogan Page. 153-162. http://www.businessballs.com/performanceappraisals.htm www.rose.edu/faculty/bperryman/f6.pdf

Acupuncture :: essays research papers

Acupuncture   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acupuncture is a Chinese medical practice that treats illness and provides local anesthesia by the insertion of needles at predetermined sites of the body. Acupuncture may also follow many other forms. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin word acus, meaning needle, and pungere, meaning puncture. The Chinese call acupuncture Chen Chiu.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On doing my research over acupuncture I used many different sources. I got most of my information from the Internet. I discovered a large acupuncture clinic in Houston and contacted them over the phone. I never really realized that acupuncture was used so much in this country, but there are many places acupuncture is used in the United States.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acupuncture is used in the treatment of a wide variety of medical problems. It is used for ear, nose, and throat disorders, respiratory disorders, Gastrointestinal disorders, Eye disorders, and Neurological and Muscular disorders. The needles used in acupuncture are usually only inserted from 1/4 to 1 inch deep into the skin. There is usually no pain in acupuncture. Usually if any pain it is only mild. Most of the needles now used in acupuncture are disposable needles. Acupuncture does not always only involve needles. They may also use other methods such as moxibustion, cupping, electronic stimulation, magneotherapy and various types of massage. There are also many different styles of acupuncture practiced all over the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many things to consider when choosing an acupuncturist. Acupuncture is a licensed and regulated healthcare profession in about half the states in the United States. There are many acupuncture practices which are not certified, so when choosing one some research is required. If you get acupuncture usually between five to fifteen sessions are required, depending on the severity of the complaint. Many acute conditions only require a single treatment. The main thing to remember when receiving acupuncture is to simply relax. After acupuncture treatments much of the pain may be gone after the first treatment, or in some cases it takes more. In some cases the pain may become worse, this is known as the rebound effect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The clinic I got most of my information from is a clinic in Houston. They specialize in Acupuncture Therapy for diseases and conditions such as acute and chronic pain, degenerative diseases, arthritis, M.S., post-stroke, migraine

Political Science Essay

Chapter 1 1. Authority: the recognized right of officials to exercise power 2. Constitutionalism: the idea that there are lawful restrictions on government’s power 3. Corporate power: operates in part through the influence that firms have with policy makers 4. Democracy: a form of government in which the people govern, either directly or through an elected representative. 5. Elitism: the power well exercised by well positioned and high influential individuals 6. Free market system: operates mainly on private transactions. Firms are largely free to make their own production, distribution and pricing decisions 7. Judicial action: the use of courts as means of asserting rights and interests. 8. Majoritarianism: the situation in which the majority effectively determines what the government does 9. Pluralism: holds that, most issues, the preference of the special interest largely determines what government does 10. Political Science: the systematic study of government and politics 11. Political thinking: careful gathering and sifting of information in the process of forming a knowledgeable view about a political issue 12. Politics: the means by which society settles in conflicts and allocates the resulting the benefits and costs 13. Power: refers to the ability of persons, groups or institutions to influence political developments 14. Public policies: decisions of government to pursue particular courses of action Chapter 2 1. Anti-Federalists: raised arguments that national government would ne too powerful and would threaten self government in the separate states and the liberty of people 2. Bill of Rights: includes those as freedom of speech, religion, due process protections. 3. Checks and Balances: no institution can act decisively without the support or acquiescence of the other institution. 4. Constitution: a fundamental law that defines how government will legitimately operate; the method for choosing its leaders, the institutions through which these leaders will work, the procedures they must follow in making policy and the powers they can lawfully exercise; highest law of the land 5. Constitutional democratic republic: the type of government created in the United States in 1787. a. Constitutional: in its requirement to gain power through elections be exercised in accordance with law and with due respect for individual rights b. Democratic: in its provisions for majority influence through elections c. Republic: in its mix of deliberative institutions, each of which moderates the power of others 6. Delegates: officeholders who are obligated to carry out the expressed opinions of the people they represent 7. Limited government: one that is subject to strict legal limits on the uses of power, so that it would not threaten the people’s liberty 8. Self Government: one in which the people would be the ultimate source of governing authority and would have a voice in their governing 9. Inalienable rights or Natural rights: life, liberty and property, which are threaten by individuals 10. The Virginia Plan:/Large State Plan: included separate judicial and executive branches as well as two chamber congress that would have supreme authority in all areas 11. The New Jersey Plan / Small State Plan: call for a stronger national government than that provided by the articles of confederation 12. The Great Compromise: the agreement of the constitutional convention to create a two chamber congress with the House appointed by population and the Senate apportioned equally by the state 13. 3/5 Compromise: each slave was to count as less than a person. 14. Federalists: Constitution supporters 15. Liberty: the principle that individuals should be free to act, and think as they choose, provided they do not infringe on the well being of others 16. Grants of Power: framers chose to limit the national government in part by confirming its scope of authority to those powers expressively granted in the Constitution. 17. Denials of Power: a means to limit government to prohibit certain practices that European rulers had routinely used to oppressed political opponents 18. Separation of Powers: division of the powers of government among separate institutions or branches 19. Separated institution sharing power: 20. Checks and Balances: No institution can act decisively without the support or acquiescence of the other institutions 21. Judicial Review: the power of the judiciary to decide whether a government official or institution that has acted within its limits of the Constitution 22. Tyranny Sovergnty: a government cannot be sovereign if it can be overruled by another government 23. Federalism: a governmental system in which authority is divided between two sovereign levels of government, national and regional. 24. Unitary system: sovereignty is vested solely in the national government. 25. Confederacy: the type of government that existed under the Articles of confederation 26.

Bound Morphemes Pg Essays

Bound Morphemes Pg Essays Bound Morphemes Pg Essay Bound Morphemes Pg Essay Notes from live broadcast 29/07/09 Mrs Masehela made a comment at the beginning of the session that because of a large amount of students receiving their study material late, she would focus only on what is relevant for the exam during this broadcast – I really hope this is the case. The chapters I refer to in these notes are from the prescribed book: Investigating English. Chapter One A system of signs for human communication there are different modes of linguistic communication- writing signs and oral. Language is a semiotic system. Semiotics: the study of signs and symbols and their meanings.Language is a system where the individual elements ‘signs’, take their overall meaning from HOW they are combined with other elements. Think of the English language spelling patterns and compare that with another language you know. Think of the road signs and their meanings or any other sign and its meaning. de Saussure theory of linguistic signs. pg 6 The signifier â⠂¬â€œ the sequence of sounds (word), which makes up the sign e. g. w/a/t/e/r this is the symbol. The signified – the mental or physical reality of the sign e. g. water. The properties of language (unique) pg 9 Displacement – talk about things that are not in sight. Arbitrariness – no natural relationship between a word and it’s meaning. Discreetness – separate or distinct. Each sound functions as an individual. Duality – distinct sounds do not convey meaning but carry meaning when combined with other sounds. (ooo, eee, aaa by themselves no meaning). Productivity – speakers produce and interpret an infinite number of new signals, able to produce a sentence without memorising. Cultural transmission – language is passed on from one generation to the next (mother tongue).Chapter 4 Words and word formation (the structure of words) Morpheme – pg 63 the smallest meaningful unit of a language. e. g. –ful, -er, un-, ive. Free morphemes – pg 65 independent words, simple can’t be broken down. car, sure, fine, chew, school, a, the, Two kinds – content/lexical morphemes Open group-new words can be added. They carry meaning – fine, chew. function/grammatical morphemes Closed group-new words hardly ever added. When attached, work together with content – but, if, this, and. Bound morphemes – pg 67 can not occur unattached. (not a word on its own) also called affixes. e. g. –ful, un-, -s, -er. the base or the stem is the morpheme to which prefixes and suffixes are attached. e. g. safe, drive, tangle. Inflectional morphemes- pg 68 do not change the grammatical status of a word. e. g school (noun), schools (noun), talk (verb), talked (verb) can change quantities, tenses, plurality. [pic] see page 69 as well. Derivational morphemes – pg 69 these change the grammatical class of a word e. g. –ly slowly verb adjective adverb Chapter 7 La nguage and meanings. Nature of meaning. Language is a conduit/channel along which thoughts are transferred. Meaning can’t be separated from language. Lexemes. can have a variety of forms called variant forms. when change from one to another, meaning changes as well. [pic] Chapter 8 Language acquisition. Acquisition – what we are born with, learn as we grow up to about 13 years of age. Learning – what we are formally taught, from about 13 years. Different theories- Imitation – child imitates language they hear around them. Innateness – humans born with a capacity for a language development. Input motherese/caretaker speech, more time spent with. Cognitive – child develops a concept first, able to remember/make sense of words of language. Chapter 8 cont†¦ Language acquisition – observe any child between the ages of 1m – 6y. study the section on stages of language acquisition pg 133-135 of textbook. this is my summar y of this section – not possible to explain but is possible to observe, record and chart. proceed at own pace, reach different stages at different ages sequence of stages, generally the same Stage 1 – , | |attention/discomfort |by short vowel |longer then cooing |resembling speech – |recognisable objects|combine 2 |nouns- omit the | | | |– high to low |1st real signs | | |am,-ed –ing, | | | | |language development| | | | Chapter 9 English and education 1. What role should English play in your community/country? 2. What role is English playing in your community/country today? 3. The role and importance of the standard variety of English. 1. Unifying language, able to interact with business partners, economically possible to gain recognition and be understood. 2.Kind can come from/various – have varying linguistic backgrounds, multi/mono-lingual – some communities are flooded by people from other parts of the world; English has a r ole, as a unifier, business partner, feel accepted. Beyond border of country – what is the role there? 3. Is it really important to know standard variety of English or just â€Å"black† English, â€Å"Hispanic† English or must it be standard English. Please correct me here/add in or what ever – I seem to have missed the boat here; however I did write every thing she spoke about? I suspect we need to prepare this for a long question. Exam 2 hours. Ensure you write in paragraphs â€Å"give a critical.. † give own view on topic, -ve and +ve side substantiate. â€Å"discuss† write in paragraphs, your own view is not necessary here.

friendly sons of st. patrick essays

friendly sons of st. patrick essays In the 1800s, immigrants from all different countries flooded into the United States for various reasons. Among the different immigrants that came into America were the Irish. The Irish had various long-standing reasons for migrating to the United States. Among those reasons was the resentment of British Protestantism, British landlords, British taxes, British rule, and a long depression that gave them social hardships. Ireland was the most densely populated country in Europe and it was devastated by economic collapse. The average age of death at this time declined down to nineteen (America 523). Another reason why they fled Ireland was the potato rot epidemic in 1845. The potato rot of 1845 brought a great famine to mostly all of rural Ireland and killed almost one million peasants (Irish 463). These events were what began the flood of Irish immigrants into America. Nearly 214,000 thousand Irish emigrated to the United States and Canada in 1847 on ships that were crowded and had very unsanitary conditions. These coffin ships claimed to have great space on board and warmed steerage (America 521). The living conditions turned out to be deadly as it killed thirty percent of all immigrants on board. Among the thirty percent that died, forty thousand were Irish (America 521). The boats arrived in such cities as Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The immigrants had very little money that could afford a place to stay, so they stayed in the back alleys of buildings and around Catholic churches in the cities were their ships had docked (America 522). The reason the Irish had very little money or no money at all was because they were mostly farmers in Ireland. The Farmers main crop was the potato, which was ravaged by the rot of 1845. The rot had left the farmers with very little or no profit at all on their main crop (America 522). With no mon ey to live off of the Irish would have to go loo...

Writing paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Writing paper - Essay Example thing seems to be rippled, and only a few look concerned about the American problems, as everybody assumes that things are headed in the right direction. The scope of this essay is therefore based on the common problems that are likely to end the American dream, of which income inequality is the biggest problem of all the American problems. Many people have been of the opinion that racism is the biggest problem facing America. The bold prediction has been that the rising income inequality will be the most crucial political battleground for the next few decades (Cal et al). Surprisingly, most of the American problems have resulted from income inequality and this problem has been there for so long. Economists have assumed the income inequality problem for so long despite its consequences. The gap between the rich and the poor has been increasing on a daily basis. The rich are spending more simply because they have more cash to spend. Their spending has been shifting the frame of reference that shapes the life of those who are in lower economic class, travelling in overlapping social circles. The middle class also spends more, shifting the reference frame for the group just below it, and the income ladder continues this way up to those living below the poverty line. Such cascades have made it more expensive for middle inc ome earners to achieve basic financial goals. Taking a look at figures such as the income that accrue to the top 1% increased from 9% in 1977 to 20% in 2012. The richest 0.1% used to control 7% of wealth in 1980 and 22% of the wealth in 2013. Meanwhile, many people have been of the opinion that the only way of reducing this income inequality would be through increasing taxes on income and wealth. Unfortunately, the rich will not allow this to happen. Income inequality has caused a snowballing effect on the distribution of income, as there is a high rate of saving top incomes. As a result, wealth has been concentrating at the top. The rising income

Assessment of Views On Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Assessment of Views On Democracy - Essay Example The United States model of democratization is rather political. This form of democratization emphasizes on a political struggle of democrats seeking dominance over non-democrats. Political parties have a crucial place in this model. This models aims at gaining political liberties. In this process, institutions receive a lot of attention with democrats ensuring there is a level of democracy in political parties, elections, and institutions that fight for civil rights. This model has been the guideline of the United States struggled for democracy over the years. The nations politics consists of democrats fighting non –democrats and implementation of policies that favor the existing institutions. In its promotion of democracy, the United States urges other nation to adopt this model. The Bush regime of the United States made efforts of promoting this type of democratization. In most of the cases, these two models usually overlap. Carothers gives the illustration of Canada; a coun try that had focused on the developmental model, but is recently making advances into the political model through the promotion of institutions. Carothers presents a guideline that characterizes the democratization process. One of these involves the presence of a vibrant and independence of the civil society.