The Challenges facing Performance Appraisal Management: Lessons for Polytechnics in Ghana

Abstract

The justification for performance appraisal is to improve individual employee’s performance in the organisation in an attempt to improve the overall institutional performance and effectiveness. This study explores performance appraisal systems in the selected polytechnics in Ghana. The objectives are to identify the appraisal systems; to identify the challenges and to assess the role and effectiveness of the performance appraisal systems in the Ghanaian public sector polytechnics. The research design is both quantitative and qualitative and generated data through semi-structured interviews and structured questionnaires from 185 polytechnics’ employees in Ghana. Descriptive statistic was used to analyse the data which included the use of frequencies, percentages, and mean. Content analysis was used to analyse exiting literature. The results indicate that generally the perceptions of the administrative staff concerning the effectiveness of the present performance appraisal systems of the polytechnics were skewed towards dissatisfaction because they lacked essential characteristics of an effective performance appraisal system. These include lack of clearly formulated and defined policies and objectives, performance measures, effective staff participation and training and development that could make them effective. The study concludes that there is a need for the polytechnics to recognise their employee as valued resources and treat them as a source of competitive advantage, which have to be strategically managed to achieve improved employee performance and development as well as the effectiveness of the polytechnics.

Keywords: Appraisal; Performance, Management; Polytechnics; Ghana