CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In any evaluation of the condition necessary for the growth and survival of an organization, the role of performance appraisal is a strategic factor. It is believed that both the individual and the organization need to know how well actual performance is contributing to the accomplishment of the job plans, the staffing plan, and ultimately the overall strategic plan of the organization. In addition, the individual employee requires feedback relative to his or her own goals development, as well as that relative to management’s expectations.

Performance appraisal is a formal and systematic assessment of an employee to determine the degree to which the employee is performing his/her job effectively. It is usually made in a prescribed manner of specific intervals such as quarterly, bi-annually or even annually. Each employee at one time or the other wants his immediate boss or more still his employer to assess his on-the-job performance, and where necessary give him guidelines or advice for improving his efficiency.

An effective performance review system serves these general purposes. In other words, as Nwachukwu (1985) puts it, “the essence of performance appraisal is to give information for the promotion, demotion, transfer, pay increase, training and development and discharge of an employee”.

Secondly, it provides employees with constructive on how they are performing in their jobs as viewed by their managers, thus leading to increased productivity.

Therefore, in any organization, manpower remains the most prominent and the most valuable assets among other factors of production. It is this reason performance appraisal is given recognition as a tool to improve organizational activities.