1.0 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      background to the study

The performance evaluation mechanism is used by both public and private companies to evaluate themselves and their personnel’s. According to Mathis and Jackson (2017) A worker's performance should be evaluated after they have been hired for a position, taught to do it, and worked on it for some time. Performance evaluation is therefore the process of assessing how well individuals perform their jobs in comparison to a set of standards and then taking the required action to allow them to make improvements on the job..

In reality, many organisations use different names for performance reviews depending on their particular needs. Nigeria's public sector refers to it as an APER, or performance reviews . Some of the terms used by other firms are employee rating, employee assessment, performance review, and performance evaluation. Despite its significance, performance reviews don't always seem to be a top priority in government organizations especially among Ijebu north Employees. This lax attitude may have developed as a result of the perception that not all performance reviews are impartial.. It might not be required to discuss appraisal ratings with employees for this reason. If accurate performance data are lacking, it could be difficult to distinguish between personnel practically. There are several sorts of performance reviews, each of which serves a different purpose in an organization.

Generally speaking, performance evaluations include assessing an employee's progress—or lack thereof—on the job, as determined by job effectiveness or productivity. This is because employee expenses make up a significant portion of total costs, it is crucial to measure staff productivity and cost.. Top management places a high value on employee performance and productivity since it serves as a key indicator of overall management effectiveness. As a result, performance evaluation entails identifying, measuring, and managing employees' productivity in an organization such as Ijebu north local government.

 Effective performance appraisal helps management in finding ways of training and motivating employees so as to retain the best available talents and to improve organizational performance. In the absence of this, the most capable employees may decide to leave an organization, where incentive levels are low, leading to high labour turnover that often has negative effect on productivity.

Employee performance and productivity refer to the efficient use of organisational resources and is measured as output per employee. Since motivation is important in many facets of working life, the motivational component of performance evaluations is crucial to employee productivity. In addition to having an impact on quality and productivity, it also helps to create a more favourable work place environment..

Although pay is frequently the primary consideration, there are many other factors that motivate employees to work. Other indicators include the physical demands of the job, socialising, self-actualization, prestige, a sense of accomplishment, and the physiological components of employment. The need for these can be shown through performance evaluation, which can then assist management in creating a motivational mechanism that motivates workers to contribute positively to the accomplishment of organisational goals..

 However, appraisals to encourage employee performance is hardly fully done in most government organizations. For instance, large firms in Nigeria employ a sizable number of individuals who have not reached their full potential. Poor work attitudes are explained by low employee motivation, according to a survey of some of these firms.. Poor job design, weak levels of authority, a lack of training and development programs and few prospects for advancement are problems that frequently result from a lack of a formalised system of performance evaluation or human resource management (Ugoani, 2016). When employees are not given feedback, they may not be as willing to make changes that might increase productivity. (Anseel et al., 2015; Bernichon et al., 2018). It is to this the study centers on effect of performance appraisal on ijebu north local government employees.

1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM

Managers must identify issues for effective appraisal, but they must also give constructive criticism and implement the necessary remedial measures to increase worker performance.

Unfortunately, the public sector in Nigeria today finds it incredibly challenging to train appraisers to distinguish between individual contributions and those of the work team without making personality-biased decisions. The assessment system is messed up by things like being a rigorous or lenient appraiser, having likes and dislikes, and having a partisan agenda. This commonly results in demotivation and low staff productivity especially in Ijebu north local government.

The fact that Ijebu North Local Government only conducts assessments once a year presents another difficulty for performance evaluation because, in such circumstances, they are unable to accurately capture the true level of employee performance due to delays and other irregularities. Almost always, rather than being based on objective performance indicators, annual appraisals are made based on the subjective judgement of the appraisers.

Due to these shortcomings, many employees now believe that evaluations are inaccurate and unhelpful for hiring and promoting people in the organization. Also, it may be said that there hasn't been much current research on staff performance and performance evaluation in government organizations. Therefore, our work aims to raise awareness of this crucial issue so that efforts can be made to close the knowledge gap through further studies.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) What are factors that influence employee productivity among staff in Ijebu north local government Area?

2) What is the relationship between Performance Appraisal Process and Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government?

3) What is the effect of Performance Appraisal Feedback on Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government?

4) What is the effect of Performance Appraisal Goals on Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government?

5) What are the ways of improving employee productivity in Ijebu north local government?

1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study is to Effect Of Performance Appraisal On Ijebu North Local Government Employees. Other general objectives of the study are:

1) To asses factors that influence employee productivity among staff in Ijebu north local government Area

2)  To examine the relationship between Performance Appraisal Process and Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

3) To examine the effect of Performance Appraisal Feedback on Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

4) To examine the effect of Performance Appraisal Goals on  Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

5) To examine ways of improving employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

1.5HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

Hypothesis 1

HO: There is no significant effect of Performance Appraisal Feedback on Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government council

H1: There is a significant effect of Performance Appraisal Feedback on Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government council

Hypothesis 2

HO: there is no significant relationship between Performance Appraisal Process and Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

H1: there is a significant relationship between Performance Appraisal Process and Employee productivity in Ijebu north local government

1.6SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

When performance standards are clearly articulated by management, employees know what is expected, what is considered unacceptable performance, and how organizational standards should be achieve. This research work is useful and relevant to the entire society, as it helps organizations and other sectors of the economy in knowing and appreciating the roles performed by human resources in enhancement of organization efficiency as well as how best to manage these human resources.

To this end it therefore serves as a benchmark for financial researchers to further evaluate the effect of employer-employee relationship, and how it ultimately effects the performances and growth of the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Consequentially, it aids the Government, policy makers and stakeholders to properly articulate critical areas in human resources that needs to be improved on so as to forge a stronger workforce via the implementation solid performance appraisal

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

The Study Would Cover Effect Of Performance Appraisal On Ijebu North Local Government Employees

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher was faced with the following constraints in carrying out this study:

Time: The time within the researcher is too short to carry on the detail study on this topic.

Resources: Another constraint of the researcher is financial resources to carry on the detail study of this topic. Data: Another limitation to this study will be lack of data to make valid study on the research problem.

1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

Performance Appraisal: A performance appraisal is a systematic and periodic process that assesses an individual employee’s job performance and productivity in relation to certain pre-established criteria and organizational objectives.

Employee Productivity: Employee productivity (sometimes referred to as workforce productivity) is an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of workers. Productivity may be evaluated in terms of the output of an employee in a specific period of time.