Current practices in performance appraisal.

Abstract

A survey of 196 private voluntary social service agencies showed that two methods of performance appraisal were most widely used in evaluating employee performance, i.e., essays and rating scales. The results-oriented method of performance appraisal, generally viewed in management literature as the most effective approach to performance evaluation, was not widely used. The primary purposes of performance appraisal were seen by agencies participating in the research as performance improvement and salary or wage increment. The author reviews the strengths and weaknesses of alternative methods of performance appraisal currently used in human service agencies. The results-oriented method of employee evaluation is discussed with an emphasis on the implementation of this performance appraisal technique.