Performance Appraisal Fundamentals, Practices and Challenges in Public Sector: Case of Adigrat Town, Ethiopia

PURPOSE & AIM: In Ethiopian Context, the modern Performance Appraisal practices and its implementation are still in its nascent stage, and there exists a gap in understanding the mechanism of performance appraisal processes in the case of Ethiopia's public sector organizations, which employs a significant proportion of the working population. The study was conducted to assess performance appraisal practices and challenges in the public sector, specifically the Case of Adigrat town, Ethiopia and also reexamine the fundamentals of Performance Appraisal from Literature review. METHODOLOGY: The study used both primary and secondary data sources. Cross-sectional survey was used and 174 respondents were taken as a sample from a total population of 1213 comprising 19 public sector organization and from each organization, proportionate sampling technique was applied. The questionnaire mainly used 5-point Likert scale items and it was distributed to the employees of public sector organization on the basis of simple random sampling. The collected data through questionnaire were analyzed using statistical techniques such as frequencies, mean, standard deviation and ANOVA. FINDINGS & CONCLUSION: Majority of employees are evaluated with same criteria, and it becomes difficult to know individual's performance regarding their knowledge, skill and other aspects as they differ in weightage because of varied job duties and responsibilities. There exists carelessness in hearing and addressing employees' problem regarding performance appraisal and evaluation standard is not revised by the responsible authority. Performance appraisal is biased because of partiality by supervisors, also team coordinators lack proper training in assessing and giving feedback. The major performance appraisal challenges raised from interviewees are, not having computer skill, no consistent training for appraiser and appraisee, subjective criteria's (attitude), self-evaluating by two weeks' culture in giving performance results etc. Based on the findings it is inferred that the performance appraisal process is at a moderate level, employees are well aware of the criterions for performance appraisal, implementation of performance appraisal methods is not at the desired level. Therefore, it is recommended that the public sector should improve its performance appraisal practices to ensure the availability of efficient and effective employees in all organizations, especially in the Case of Ethiopia (Adigrat)