The effectiveness of performance appraisal systems in private Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Performance appraisal system is important to any organizational work performance; it determines the organization’s success or failure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of performance appraisal system at private universities in Kenya. The focus of the study was on the employees of Kabarak University. The study evaluated the purpose of performance appraisal in private universities and identifies relevant factors for achieving an effective performance appraisal. A cross-sectional survey was selected for this study because it was cheap to undertake compared to longitudinal survey and the results from the sample can be inferred to the larger population. The study population was all the employees of Kabarak University. The whole populations of staff were selected as respondents. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data for analysis. The analysis of the collected data was done by help of SPSS and presented using of descriptive statistics, frequency tables, percentages and pie charts. The findings from the study have established that performance appraisal system is the only tangible metric way by which an organization can know the level of performance of its diverse employees. Although most employees are aware of the type of performance appraisal system used in the private universities, such systems are not based on any serious formal purpose for which they were designed. The effectiveness of performance appraisal systems in the private universities are only based on training to the employees involved in the rating/appraising process and are multi- rating systems. Conclusively, because the performance appraisal systems used in private universities are not effective and that they exist just as a matter of formalities, the private universities can not measure employees’ performance hence making it difficult to achieve the intended Human Resource Management objectives.