Performance Appraisals and Employee Satisfaction

Background of the Study

Performance appraisal pertains to different employee assessments that aim to improve the organization’s performance and employees. Supervisors undertake the evaluation, and the human resource practice is essential in controlling and motivating employees to improve their performance. The performance appraisal results are critical in making decisions regarding future pay raises, promotions, and other career enhancement approaches. This process has a substantial effect on an employees’ job satisfaction. The satisfaction of a firm’s employees is essential in sustaining the organization’s profitability (Pang and Lu, 2018). According to Van Der Lippe and Lippenyi (2019, p. 61), a given employee’s satisfaction depends on how the worker lines up his hopes at work with outcomes. Employees tend to be motivated to stay and work within enterprises that ensure quality working conditions and employee development.

Performance appraisal plays a crucial role in sustaining the profitability of an organization, developing employee skills, expectations, and ultimately employee job satisfaction. Performance evaluation is highly prevalent in the private sector and has also been encouraged in public entities. Different studies examine the relationship between performance appraisal and employee satisfaction, worker productivity, and motivation (Ozkeser, 2019; Olusadum and Anulika, 2018). There lacks preliminary research focusing on the relationship between performance appraisals and employee satisfaction in health care organizations. Therefore, the study will evaluate the link between performance appraisals and job satisfaction among nurses working at the National Health Service (NHS) hospitals.

Research Problem

Performance appraisal inspires workers to remain loyal and enhance teamwork while positively supporting other human resource duties. The process is also vital in improving employee motivation in the workplace. Based on the various contributions of the process to the attainment of both organization and employee goals, performance appraisal has become a key concern for most organizations. This research will investigate the relationship between performance appraisals on employees’ job satisfaction. The research will seek to understand the effect of the appraisal process on employee attitude with the belief that in the event appraisals are conducted with vivid objectives and connects employee performance with rewards, employees’ job satisfaction will significantly change.

Objective and Research Questions

The study seeks to investigate the relationship between performance appraisals and employee satisfaction among nurses working at an NHS hospital. The research questions for the study include:

1. Does the performance appraisal process affect your job satisfaction?
2. What is your intrinsic work motivation?
3. What are your work outcomes in terms of performance and productivity?
4. What is your opinion on obstacles that hinder work satisfaction with the performance?

The researcher will ask nurses and other employees working within NHS hospitals within East Midlands, UK. The study will use closed and open-ended questions where the questionnaire is expected to be understandable to the target population.

Literature Review

Performance appraisals allow the management to evaluate the employees, provide feedback for personal development, and support future development areas. Performance review enables employees to establish individual developmental goals, which lead to personal growth (Lysova et al., 2019, p. 180). The appraisal also recognizes employee weaknesses strengths and assists in developing objectives that enhance employee performance (Idowu, 2017, p. 15). These objectives act as a fundamental reference point that helps employees determine what is expected of them, enabling them to direct efforts towards the organization’s goal. Performance evaluation is often employed to align the organization’s objectives with employees’ (Fischer et al., 2020). The assessment acts as a crucial reference for the skills and experiences employees need to acquire. The Hackman and Oldham (1976) job characteristics model explains that a task is fundamental to employee motivation.

According to the job characteristic model, monotonous and tedious tasks negatively affect employees’ motivation. The model states five essential features in enhancing an employee’s job performance and psychological condition. The theorists reveal that job characteristics such as skill variety, task identity, and task significance are essential in developing employee meaningfulness in their task, which leads to high performance. Provision of feedback is also another feature likely to improve employee job satisfaction as it provides knowledge of the job results (Al-dalahmeh et al., 2018, p. 17). The theory also postulates that job autonomy is essential in enhancing employee sense of responsibility for work outcomes which improves motivation. Additionally, the goal-setting theory elaborates on the impacts of developing goals on successive performance. According to Locke and Latham (1991), individuals who develop challenging plans perform better than individuals who set manageable goals. According to the researchers, creating clear goals and proper feedback is crucial in motivating employees. The researcher further adds that working towards a goal improves motivation through the goal-setting theory, thereby enhancing performance.

Performance appraisal helps the organization design a reward system for motivating employees. Motivated workers tend to have a positive attitude towards their job, increasing productivity (Cherian et al., 2021 p. 45). However, the motivation crowding theory warns that awarding extrinsic incentives for given types of behavior can weaken intrinsic motivation for executing that behaviour (Ling and Xu, 2021). Additionally, the Self Determination Theory (SDT) tends to elaborate more on the nature of inspiration. Developed by Deci and Ryan (1985), the SDT is based on the premise, “human beings are active, goal-oriented organisms; which are naturally drawn towards the link of their psychic elements into an integrated sense of self and unification of themselves into a larger social structure.” Findings by Chen, Chen, and Xu (2018) reveal that elevated levels of self-determination are essential in reducing stressors related to work overload, work stress, or performance pressure. According to the theory, intrinsically motivated workers experience heightened self-determination, display-worthy behaviors, and distinctive satisfaction.

Various studies tend to understand the relationship between performance appraisals and job satisfaction. Literature by Iqbal et al. (2019, p. 291) indicates that a critical objective of performance evaluation is to provide employees with work expectations. This practice thereby assists individual employee development and collective growth of the entire workforce while considering performance while designing the pay structure (Elumeze, 2020). Findings by Tweedie et al. (2018) indicate that results from performance appraisal help employees understand how their organizations expect them to perform in harmony with organizational goals. Similar findings were recorded by Islami, Mulolli, and Mustafa (2018), who state that the primary purpose of conducting performance evaluations is to provide formal and periodic feedback to employees.

There are different reasons why organizations evaluate their employees. Osborne and Hammoud (2017) reveal three main reasons for conducting performance appraisals. The first reason includes allowing time for performance reviews. According to the authors, performance reviews represent a chance for managers to deliberate with their employees on development within their present positions, individual strengths, and areas in need of additional advancement. Another reason for evaluations is to facilitate reward reviews. Managers discuss decisions on rewards with the junior employees. These rewards include promotions, pay raises, or benefits that a firm might award its workers who meet a particular criterion. The final reason for undertaking a performance appraisal is to create an opportunity for top management to discuss employees’ opportunities for progression. Additionally, employees can state the work suitable for them in the future and how they can be developed towards achieving the target.

Different researchers offer varied reasons why organizations undertake performance evaluations. Findings by Ahmed et al. (2019) indicate that performance appraisal targets evaluating employees and providing an opportunity to understand how to develop the employees. According to the researchers, the evaluative role pertains to utilizing the evaluation to aid in making human resource decisions like promotions, pay, retention, layoffs, salary, promotion, termination, administration and recognition, and locating poor performance amongst employees. According to Coutinho et al. (2017), the process is also understood to be an evaluative process based on an employee’s performance; they are awarded numerical scores. These scores are later communicated to respective employees.

Job satisfaction refers to how a particular employee feels about their work. The phenomenon entails an employee’s feelings regarding conditions he works, impacting his attitude towards his job. According to Umrani et al. (2019), job satisfaction entails rewards as employees’ feelings tend to be influenced by compensations. Job Satisfaction can either be intrinsic or extrinsic; Ummah and Athambawa (2018) state that job satisfaction assists organizations locate behaviors within the workplace like absenteeism or organizational citizenship. Additionally, Saari (2004) found that firms can trace employee turnover with job satisfaction. Cohen et al. (2007) state that organizations can eradicate negative work attitudes like absenteeism by increasing employee job satisfaction.

Research Methods

The evaluation will employ a quantitative research design as it pertains usage of different procedures on collecting data. According to Mourelatou et al. (2019), this technique enables a researcher to analyze numerical data or measurements obtained from the questionnaires, surveys, or polls. The underlying justification for the faster data collection is that the technique uses random data collection methods and enhances the reliability of the data. This research targets obtaining various conclusions from the data retrieved from the sample population. Consequently, the quantitative technique provides a suitable methodology to achieve this objective. The quantitative method is essential in reviewing the evidence available and clarifying hypotheses and theories (Apuke, 2017). The research will employ open and closed-ended questionnaires to its target population, including NHS healthcare organizations in East Midlands, UK. The survey will target employees who have worked for their respective organizations for not less than one year. The survey will incorporate information relating to the previous and current jobs of the respondents. Other aspects include; education, demographics, personality traits, living standards, and level of education of the respondent.

Measures

Performance Appraisal

The measure of details regarding performance appraisal will be through the item “Is your performance regularly evaluated by a superior in accordance to a given agreed procedure?”. Therefore, emphasis is given to appraisals that are progressive and formal. This situation will mean considering informal feedback conversations between employees and their superiors. The respondents who will give a “yes” answer will be asked if the evaluation affects their monthly gross salary, future salary increments, yearly bonus, or likelihood of promotion. Based on the above information, the research will create three binary variables. The first variable includes performance assessment which will take the value of 1 in the event the performance of an individual is generally analyzed. The second variable will be performance assessment with monetary implications. This variable will take the value 1 in the event an individual is assessed, and this assessment results in one of the four categories stated above. The third dummy variable will incorporate employees whose performance has been evaluated but fails to enjoy one of the four categories stated earlier.

Job Satisfaction

The study aims to measure job satisfaction through the item “how satisfied are you with your job?” through an 11-point Likert scale ranging from zero (totally unhappy to ten (totally happy).

Personality traits

The research will involve a measure of the big five personality traits by adopting a 15-item version of the Big GFive Inventory (BFI-S) created for SOEP. Individual personality dimensions will be measured using three items, starting with “I see myself as someone who…” through a 7-point Likert scale ranging from g1 (Does not apply at all) to 7 (applies to me perfectly). Based on the availability of a limited number of items employed to measure personality, Cronbach’s alpha is encouraged for entire personality dimensions. Assertations by Bleidorn et al. (2019) and Lucas and Soto (2018) reveal that as personality traits are constant over a certain period, mean values for every individual and Big five dimensions need calculation over time. For better interpretation, the variables will undergo subjection to a standard zero mean and unit variance.

Validity and Reliability

Data reliability and Validity refer to the various techniques employed by researchers to evaluate the quality of specific research. According to Kyngäs, Kääriäinen, and Elo (2019), Validity entails the accuracy of measures used in the study, while reliability refers to the consistency of the action. This research will attain reliability and validity standards as data rectification will be applied. The process will involve contacting the NHS healthcare organizations within East Midlands, UK. This model entails a combination of both primary and secondary data to attain the study’s objectives. The primary purpose of undertaking this procedure is to ensure data is free from biasness and accurate.

Ethical Consideration

The study’s design ensures that it abides by the ethical standards required when conducting research. The research will guarantee that information retrieved from the respondents remains confidential while ensuring anonymity. According to Allen (2017), anonymity is the assurance of anonymity when the subject’s identity cannot be associated with personal responses. If it is challenging to assure anonymity, the research will guarantee confidentiality by letting the respondents provide and withhold information as they wish (Sim and Waterfield, 2019). The researcher will only relay the questionnaire findings under the respondent’s consent.

Additionally, this study has undergone evaluation to ensure that it does not damage the respondent’s reputation while guaranteeing privacy and anonymity within the research. The research will obtain a written letter of approval from the school to collect data within NHS healthcare organizations. Another written approval letter to undertake the study will be sourced from the NHS health organizations under investigation.

Timeline

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