The Effectiveness of Performance Appraisal Implemented In School X - Paper Example

Introduction

The primary data collected and analyzed reveal that an overwhelming majority of both local and international staff (70%) concur with the need for performance appraisal in school X. Although a section of the staff had their reservation regarding the need for performance appraisal, others partially subscribe to the need for performance appraisal at school X. The analysis also shows that teachers consider efficiency in rating the use of performance appraisal in the school. It is apparent from the finding that about 50% of local teachers view performance appraisal to be inefficient in the school because of its complicated nature and poor communication from the management. This result reaffirms the finding by Aguinis (2011) that PA becomes a problem when supervisors have many expectations from the staff, thereby leading to frustration and dissatisfaction with the entire system.

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The analysis also reveals that international staff holds a different view on the effectiveness of the system. About 60 of this group of teachers believe that the system is inefficient in school X. Based on this finding; it could be argued that the strategy that works for the locals may prove inefficient for internationals. There is no doubt that the level of exposure and understanding of what constitutes an efficient performance appraisal predict teachers' perception of the system at school X. Local teachers also reported that PA is effective in determining payment and rewards let alone being used as a framework for a job promotion. This perception shows that local teachers at school X view reward and promotion as the major factors of motivation that come with performance appraisal.

On the contrary, the international staff views performance appraisal as an approach to managing employee training and development. Whereas 60% of the internationals believe that PA is a tool for individual development, only 30% of the locals have the same belief. These figures indicate that the profession of teaching focuses not only on delivering quality education to students but also pays attention to the development of teachers. However, local teachers may be more interested in the increase in their salaries, job promotion, and rewards than personal development because of their socio-economic status. The international staff may be more interested in individual growth because they pursue self-fulfillment in addition to better reward and payment regimes. The problem is that analyzing data from both the local and international staff concurrently produces confusing results that may paint the local teachers as backward and less knowledgeable.

In particular, the respondents had divergent opinions on the importance of PA for staff and supervisors. There was a wide consensus between both the local and international staff that performance appraisal improves their understanding of the school's expectations. According to the results, both the local and international staff agreed that PA leads to significant improvements in performance. London and Smith (2002) also found out that managers could improve the performance of their staff by offering feedback on their recent performance appraisals. However, one understands that managers should not use these results to discriminate against staffs who register lower performance. Instead, the results provide supervisors with an opportunity to support the average employees in setting realistic smart goals that they can achieve in line with the overall mission of the school. Therefore, the staff value PA system that focuses on feedback and continuous improvement.

A vast majority of both local and international staff believe that PA is an effective tool when it comes to identifying areas that require further development. Nearly all local teachers firmly agree that PA is useful in improving areas that require more development in school. The main area of improvement in school is eliminating ambiguity by explicitly clarifying the goals and mission statement so that the staffs have a chance to develop themselves and put extra effort in their work.

The Confidence of Teachers and Administrative Staff in the Performance Appraisal System

Confidence is a critical determinant of the willingness and frequency of participating in appraisal exercises. It is apparent from the results that 55% of the local staff base their performance targets on individual needs. Shockingly, less than 15% of local teachers cite attestation as for the focus of their performance targets. This result is puzzling because these local teachers previously had no interest in personal development. From the analysis, it was expected that the international teachers would cite school needs as the key driver of performance targets. It is even more disturbing to find that international staff chose attestation needs as the principal focus of performance targets in school. The results of the survey seem to suggest that all the staff value the provision of attestation requirements as the leading source confidence for participating in performance appraisal.

The analysis further reveals that staffs use attestation guidelines to track their performance. According to 90% of the local teachers, PA process supports teacher attestation guidelines. The performance appraisal process includes the evaluation of SMART goals of various employees. The role of SMART goals in supporting attestation needs has been validated in the literature (Bernardin & Beaty, 1994). It is evident in the responses to the survey questions that SMART goals form the basis of performance appraisal since they enable supervisors to set appraisal system goals that meet the attestation requirements of teachers. However, approximately 60% of the local teachers believe that their supervisors have unrealistic goals. This argument is premised on the observation that local supervisors implement poor training for their staff, thereby making the latter to feel that the goals are unrealistic. Therefore, the clearer the goals of the appraisal; the more confident the staff are about accomplishing their tasks.

Another important finding is that teachers become even more confidence when their supervisors support them in understanding their performance targets. As indicated in the survey results, 60% of the local teachers expressed their satisfaction with the support they receive from their supervisors. From this statistic, it appears true to believe that supervisors can enhance growth in the performance of work by engaging the subordinate when making critical decisions about the school. This staff involvement bolsters the relationship between the supervisors and their subordinate, thereby making support an instrumental strategy. They also believe that their supervisors align their goals with the mission and goals of the school. The practice of good leadership in school nurtures an effective communication strategy that works for the local and international staff. Additionally, local responses of the local staff show that performance appraisal constantly questions the relationship between performance targets and the mission and goals of the school.

From the international staff's feelings, the presence of an international supervisor in the management team was a major boost for their support. As a result, shifting from international vice-principal to local principal adversely affects the motivation and support the international staffs receive. A more in-depth analysis of the international teachers' reports shows that they also believe that their managers' priorities augured well with the school's vision and mission. It is not something worth any doubt that when the staff performs according to the school target and below their individual targets they become demoralized. As such, the motivation factors should harmonized with both personal needs and school goals to avoid exploitation to the staff as important drivers of employee motivation and commitment to quality work.

Furthermore, the training requirements of international staff are met but not in entirety. The supervisors cannot assume that newly hired employees will be perfect in their work if they do not receive any proper formal training. The analysis demonstrates that international staff at school X lack the support of their leaders because some of them could not respond to whether they underwent training or not. Through training, supervisors can realize that some the teachers' weaknesses they think are permanent are reversible in the real sense. Therefore, grilling teachers because of dismal performance or failure to achieve their set goals and performance targets is an irrational behavior on the part of supervisors (Kuvaas, 2016). Teachers view grilling as a punishment and unfair treatment which supervisors can address without waiting for them to fail. As reported in the findings, performance appraisal equips supervisors with the requisite skills to address the pitfalls that demotivate staff in their schools. In this respect, training can be used to leverage motivation, job satisfaction, and achievement of performance targets as both the local and international staff feels the value and support they receive from their managers.

The Role of Communication in Performance Appraisal

The respondents also gave their views on the role of communication in their perception of PA efficiency. About 90% of the local staff reported that their supervisors adequately communicated the goals of performance appraisal to them during meetings. Although an overwhelming majority of them agreed with communication through meetings, 30% noted that the information passed through such meetings were neither specific nor accurate. Their international counterparts held similar views. These findings demonstrate that the staff are not only interested in the frequency communication through meetings or other means but are concerned about the quality of the information being conveyed. It also points to the inherent problem of inconsistent feedback that managers provide staff with the hope of initiating improvement. Skillsportal (2017) also adviced managers to have a firm grasp of communication when working with other people. The evidence currently available appears to suggest that supervisors are obliged to provide accurate and reliable feedback to staff so that they can improve on areas of weaknesses.

Furthermore, the results of the analysis reveal that feedback is the most vital aspect of communication that managers need to grasp and accurately present at all times. All the local teachers agreed that accurate feedback enables them to know what their supervisors expect of them. Besides, they find PA to be effective in improving performance when the feedback they receive during meetings are specific. From this finding, it appears true to believe that local teachers can gain a better understanding of their roles when managers direct communication towards addressing their specific tasks rather than generalizations.

In light of communication, the results also show that language plays a vital role in the success of a performance appraisal program. Language barrier causes misunderstandings and creates discomfort among the international staff. For instance, responses from staff at School X reveal that the school's administration rarely communicates in English to the disadvantage of the international teachers. Worse still, delivering electronic communication in either Russian or Kazakh forces the international teachers to translate the information communicated. The inevitable consequence of this cultural orientation is that the translated version may not lead to the intended outcome of the original communication. The analysis also shows that School X partially practices participati...