Problem Statement

Discuss about the Performance Appraisal System on Employees Motivation.

Before going to prepare a research proposal on the basis of the business problems, it is important to have the brief introduction about the performance appraisal system.  Basically, the performance appraisal is the process of assessing the employees on the basis of how they are performing on job front. Performance appraisals aims at determining who should be promoted, who should be demoted, who should need training at workplace through assessing the strengths of the employees and their contribution in the organization.

The need for performance appraisal systems arises at the organization in order to gain the higher productivity. Performance appraisal leads to the employee motivation as well as the job satisfaction of the employees. If the performance appraisals are conducted properly at the workplace, then appraisals at the workplace will help in:

• Improving the performance of the employees at workplace
• Setting goals and objectives for the employees
• Helping managers to assess the effectiveness of the employees and take corrective measures related to the hiring, promotion, demotion and development of the employees.

The research is carried out on the basis of the business problem faced by the company and then analyzed the decision taken by the company. The company that we have chosen for this research is Amazon and the whole research revolves around the performance appraisal and how it enhances the productivity of the employees(Aggarwal, 2013).

Amazon is the American ecommerce company that offering various products and services of different brands to the customers through the online mode and also it is a cloud computing company based in the Seattle.  In this company, more than 566,000 employees are working and company achieved the US$177 billion in the year 2017. According the news of the New York Times, it is found that company was facing problem with its structure and less focused towards the employees.  Because of this reason the company faced a problem of the low performance of the employees and this leads to affect the productivity. However, Company decided to review its performance management and make it more employee focused(Fankhauser, 2016).

The research is carried with an objective to find out the role of the performance appraisal in motivating the employees to improve their performance and productivity levels. The objective of this research is to find out how the performance appraisals are effective in encouraging the employees to improve their performance.  Also, the purpose of research objective is to determine the role of the performance appraisals in achieving the organizational and personal goals. The study is also focusing more on the employee motivation(Jansirani, et al., 2013)

Research Objective

Performance appraisals and management of the performance of the employees in the organization is the major function of the human resource department and this function helps the companies like Amazon to solve their problems by focusing more on the improvement of the skills and competencies of employees.  The scope of this research is based on the employee performance appraisals that utilizes the personal qualities of the employees and helps in improving the work performance by making use of their full potential in carrying out the organizational goals. The need of utilizing the personal qualities of employees arises because to improve the performance of the employees to achieve its overall objective of the company.

The performance evaluation is defined as the planned interaction between the HR managers and employees with regard to examine the performance, strengths and weaknesses with a view to improving future performance.

Looking at the theoretical framework, there are many theories given by the authors in the favor of the performance evaluation such as the equity theory, expectancy theory and path goal theory. According to the viewpoint of Adams, the equity approach is the appropriate way to effective supervision as it simply means the fairness. It is analyzed through this theory that, people feel themselves motivated if they are treated fairly in the organization in relation to promotion, compensation and transparency in their evaluations(Mwema & Gachunga, 2014).

Many studies done with regard to the performance appraisal in the organizations and it is found that the performance appraisal is the process of evaluating an individual performance in order take decision. Expectancy theory indicates that people on employees in the organization will be motivated when you believe that their efforts results into the higher performance, will lead to awards and rewards, which are valuable to the employees, in order to improve their performance.

The different type of rewards that we can offer to the employees are such as bonus, increment, promotion salary increment which later on satisfy the personal goals of the employees in the monetary terms. The next theory goal setting theory which is given by the Lock and Latham indicates that people feel motivated and encouraged automatically when they are giving some specific goals to achieve(khan, 2013).

Therefore, the number of studies conducted by the authors for measuring the employee performance but still there are some of studies which are not suitable in some cases to measure the performance of the employees. It is observed that effective performance appraisal system changes various factors like clarity, openness and fairness, and management by objective. The performance of the employees is evaluated on the basis that their actual performance which is going to be compared by the standard set for the same performance. The employees who performed or meet the standards of the organization are said to be the higher performer in the company(ACAS, 2007).

Research Scope

 According to the current best practice thinking, the best way is to get the information related to the different opinions about the work of individual and share good suggestions for the improvement of that individual. These kinds of elevations are called as the 360 solutions which are used by many of the organizations. The best part in 360 degree of results is that it reduces the chance of biasness at the business between employees and it gives a full picture of the contributions of worker towards your organization. Some of the organizations give proper training to the employees in order to improve their presence skills and utilize the skills in order to achieve the organizational goals which help in increasing the productivity levels also. Some of the authors suggested that it is very important to review and we find the job description duties and responsibility of the Employees with the changing time so that they make sure that work of every employee is according to the set targets and will need to provide the measurable results. Therefore, future research is carried out in order to find out the relation between the employees’ performance appraisal system as well as their productivity levels of the employees(Barends, et al., 2016).

The performance appraisal is the technique which can be used by the organizations also to protect the employees from favoritism and the fairly distribute the rewards and awards to them.

It is important for the top management to develop the strategies in order to improve the performance of the employees. According to the previous researchers, it is analyzed that the employees want that employees should follow the rules and regulations of the company work as per the policies and standards of the organizations. Organizations has the responsibility to provide the good working conditions, fair pa, fair treatment and secure career, power and involvement of the decisions. Although, with the change in time, it is found that it is a very controversial issues also in the case of some organizations. Some researchers have expressed their doubts about the process of performance appraisals in the organizations(COF, 2015). There are many advocates of performance appraisals who claimed that the performance appraisals are the most critical concept and research related to the motivation is conducted by many people with the help of the previous theories of the motivation such as Maslow and Expectancy theories of motivation. Motivation is also the need of any employee in the organization. The motivation to the employees can be given in two different ways, monetary and non-monetary incentives. In the organization, there are two types of the employee, on who need monetary incentive and the second one who need the non-monetary incentives. Monetary incentives include bonuses, salary increment and salary hike by promotions etc., whereas the non-monetary incentives include the appreciations, awards, best performer title and giving examples of the employee to other team members(Department, 2001).

Literature Review

In the previous literature review there are many positive impact that have been found related to the performance of individuals in the organization but still there are some studies with does not provide a particular measure to implement by the companies in order to resolve the problems faced by them if any. Survey and resources explain in there is literature review more about the performance appraisals and its positive impact on the organizational goals(Daoanis, 2012).

The hypothesis that has been analyzed from the literature review are based on the following two assumptions:

H0: There is a relationship between the performance appraisals and employee motivation

H1: there is no relationship between the performance appraisals and the employee motivation.

The whole research is based on the one primary question related to the performance appraisal and that Research question is

“Does effective appraisal helps in motivating their employees to work harder and improve their performance”?

Research methodology is a most important part of resources a study because it is known as the different kind of strategies with the help of which we can identify the research problem. To carry on this research quantitative research approach has been adopted in which the data for research is collected with the help of questionnaire survey interviews. The research work is to find out the role of performance appraisal in motivating the employees at work place and how it should improve the performance for the employees. This research work in involve the preparation of questionnaire with regard to the performance appraisal at workplace in Amazon company. Coming to the research approaches, quantitative approach is found useful because it is dependent on the primary data which is collected through the survey. The scope of this research which is based on the employee performance appraisals that utilizes the personal qualities of the employees and helps in improving the work performance by making use of their full potential in carrying out the mission of the firms. The need of utilizing the Personal qualities of employees arises because to improve what does wireless to achieve its overall objective of the company(Katavich, 2013).

These approaches used to collect the primary data and it is very helpful in analyzing the fresh data. The data is collected with the help of the interviews and questionnaires which can be done utilized in this are also identify the role of performance appraisal at the workplace. The primary data is collected with the help of a questionnaire which is distributed among the employees to know their view points with regard to the appraisals and its effect on their performance.

As this part is based on the primary data, s in this research the data is collected with the help of questionnaires which is distributed among the number of employees in order to achieve the research objectives.To carry on this research quantitative research approach has been adopted in which the data for research is collected with the help of questionnaire survey interviews. The research work is to find out the role of performance appraisal in motivating the employees at work place and how it should improve the performance of the employees. In this research the results can be described with the help of charts, graphs, in order to make easily understand by the users and to represent the quantitative data more effectively. Data collection is the very important part of this research work as we targeted the employees for this to ask about their viewpoints.  The whole research will be based on the collected data and the responses shared by the participants. The questionnaire survey will include the multiple choice questions which are related to the performance appraisals of the employees(Ying, 2012)

On the topic of evaluation of performance of results of employees at workplace, there is enough research has been done but still there is a need of some research in order to find some measures with regard to the performance appraisals. Also it is quite difficult to convince the people to participate in the questionnaire and also this search is based on the volunteer participation(USOPM, 1998).

This part of the report showing the in every activity with the time which is performed during the research this can be explained with the help of Gantt chart which includes activity as well as the time of performing the particular task this Gantt chart is the representation of the task and the time which can be used by the project managers to plan and schedule of the projects that has been shown in the below table.  However, Gantt chart for this fesearch report has been shown in the below table. 

Activities	1st week	2nd week	3rd week	4th week	5th week	6th week	7th week	8th week	9th week
Months
Introduction
Review of literature
Research Design and Methodology
primary data collection
Analysis of Data
Findings
Conclusion

Conclusion

From this research proposal, it is clear that performance appraisal leads to the employee motivation as well as the job satisfaction of the employees. If the performance appraisals are conducted properly at the workplace, then appraisals at the workplace will help in improving the performance of the employees at workplace, setting goals and objectives for the employees and helping managers to assess the effectiveness of the employees and take corrective measures related to the hiring, promotion, demotion and development of the employees.  Motivation is also the need of any employee in the organization. The motivation to the employees can be given in two different ways, monetary and non-monetary incentives. In the organization, there are two types of the employee, on who need monetary incentive and the second one who need the non-monetary incentives. Monetary incentives include bonuses, salary increment and salary hike by promotions etc., whereas the non-monetary incentives include the appreciations, awards, best performer title and giving examples of the employee to other team members. Performance appraisals and management of the performance of the employees in the organization is the major function of the Human resource department and this function helps the companies like Amazon to solve their problems by focusing more on the improvement of the skills and competencies.   However, the objective of this research is to find out how the performance appraisals are effective in encouraging the employees to improve their performance.  Also, the purpose of research objective is to determine the role of the performance appraisals in achieving the organizational and personal goals.

References

ACAS, 2007. Employee Appraisal, Available at: https://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/7/t/B07_1_1.pdf

Aggarwal, A., 2013. Techniques of Performance Appraisal-A Review, Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264458875_Techniques_of_Performance_Appraisal-A_Review.com

Barends, E., Janssen, B. & Marenco, P., 2016. Rapid evidence assessment of the research literature on the effect of performance appraisal on workplace performance, Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/rapid-evidence-assessment-of-the-research-literature-on-the-effect-of-performance-appraisal-on-workplace-performance_tcm18-16902.pdf

COF, 2015. Sample Employee Performance Appraisal, Available at: https://www.cof.org/sites/default/files/documents/files/Employee-Performance-Appraisal%5B1%5D.pdf

Daoanis, L., 2012. Performance appraisal system: It’s Implication To Employee Performance. International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences, 2(3), pp. 55-62.

Department, H., 2001. Performance Appraisal System, Available at: https://dhrd.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PASManual0119-1-05.pdf

Fankhauser, D., 2016. Amazon’s New Performance Review Process Will Be Employee-Focused, Available at: https://www.reflektive.com/blog/amazon-performance-reviews/

Jansirani, S., Hatrikrishnan, R. & Saisathya, A., 2013. “A Study on Performance Appraisal System at Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Pvt Ltd”. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 9(3), pp. 08-23.

Katavich, K., 2013. The importance of employee satisfaction with performance appraisal systems, Available at: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10179/4708/02_whole.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

khan, M., 2013. Role of Performance Appraisal System on Employees Motivation. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 8(4), pp. 66-83.

Mwema, N. & Gachunga, H., 2014. The influence of performance appraisal on employee productivity in organizations: a case study of selected who offices in east africa. International Journal of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurship, 1(11), pp. 1-13.

USOPM, 1998. Performance Appraisal for Teams: An Overview, Available at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/reference-materials/historical/teams.pdf

Ying, Z., 2012. The Impact of Performance Management System on Employee performance, Available at: https://essay.utwente.nl/62260/1/Daisy-master_thesis.pdf