Employee perception of performance appraisal: the case of University of Nairobi

Abstract

The topic of this study was employee perception of performance appraisal: the case of the University of Nairobi. Despite the fact that various people had studied performance appraisal, none had touched specifically employee perception of performance appraisal at the University of Nairobi. A sample of 239 respondents was selected. The respondents were drawn from the six colleges and central Administration of the University of Nairobi. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to the respondents. Primary data was collected which was summarized and analysed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The study established that whereas there is a performance appraisal system in place, it faced various challenges and among the factors found to influence employee perception include the following: lack of clarity on purpose of staff performance appraisal, no link between performance appraisal results and reward system, lack of communication on problem areas that require improvement and the none existence of performance standards among others. From the foregoing it is concluded that the University of Nairobi's performance appraisal process is yet to be effective to serve the intended purpose. It is thus recommended that there should be clarity about the purpose of performance appraisal and reward system be linked to the performance appraisal results.