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No description available.

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No description available.

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M.Com. / Various ethical challenges occur in the performance appraisal process. It was postulated that the lack of transparency that often characterises performance appraisal could be a major contributing factor to the occurrence of ethical challenges in appraisal. Transparency in performance appraisal is described as an attempt to optimally reveal all relevant information regarding the performance appraisal process to key stakeholders concerned, without putting anyone at risk. A dearth of research on the role of transparency in performance appraisal prompted an attempt to isolate and describe transparency in relation to the performance appraisal process. An exploratory phenomenological approach was selected as research strategy, and within this strategy, semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=7) were utilised to explore the nature of transparency in the performance appraisal process. The participants were in a managerial role with experience in conducting performance appraisal, and have been subject to performance appraisal themselves. Systematic content analysis of data produced results that indicated that transparency does not operate in isolation but in conjunction with other ethical dimensions (trust, fairness, integrity, maturity, respect, responsibility, and honesty). Effective and sufficient communication of information before, during, and after the performance appraisal process was identified as a crucial element in creating a perception of transparency with key stakeholders involved. An adherence to principles of transparency in performance appraisal could potentially build trust between parties involved, increase fairness in the appraisal process, validate the organisation's integrity, and create mutual respect amongst stakeholders. Although applying transparency in appraisal has many benefits, it should be handled with caution as sensitive information has the potential to cause harm or put stakeholders at risk.

The performance management system has become a vital process of retaining skilled employees, helping to improve communication between the employees and management, providing feedback to employees and clear understanding of job expectation. A performance management system assists the firm to identify the ways to improve individual and firm performance and provides the opportunity for discussion about individual career direction and growth within the firm. It provides the opportunity to set employee targets linked to the departmental targets. The performance management system is the catalyst for firms to become globally competitive and be able to meet targets. Over the years the firm has introduced a performance management system to help employees to achieve their targets, which will result in the company meeting its own objectives. The study focused on the factors that affect the performance management system. The objective of the research was to improve the performance management system of the firm. The study was conducted to assess the effect of the following independent variables on the improvement of the performance management system: leadership style, training, organisational culture, reward system and organisational communication. The sample consisted of only the employees of the firm selected for the study. One hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were distributed, but only seventy-six (76) respondents (response rate = 50.7 percent) participated in the final study. The empirical results revealed that the three independent variables play a very important role in improving a performance management system. These three variables are organisational culture, training, and reward system. Implementing the recommendations that came from these results will go a long way to making sure that the firm will improve its performance management system.

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Public sector management has, through the years, been characterised by a hierarchical system whereby red tape and bureaucracy were the order of the day. Towards the latter part of the apartheid era, management had complete autonomy in the functioning of the human resource management, financial management, operations and so on, of government organisations. Top management, and to a large extent middle management, in most governmental departments comprised predominantly people classified as White. With the launch of the New Democratic Government in 1994, new legislation in the form of the Labour Relations Act of 1995, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act of 1997 and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, was instituted. This transformation heralded an about-turn and rethink by government about policies and strategies governing employees and the workplace; for example, the Labour Relations Act of 1995 restricts the concept of unfair labour practices by employers. The employee’s interest was considered in the new legislation, and is currently part of employee wellbeing programmes initiated by government and incorporated into work schedules. In addition, government has launched strategies such as “Batho Pele” (put people first) and “a home for all” (a Western Cape Provincial Government initiative to improve the image of government) to improve service delivery to communities. The above-mentioned political and legislative changes increasingly required a shift from an autocratic to a team-orientated leadership style and from an exclusively task-orientated to a people-orientated organisational culture. The study explored whether management styles, organisational culture, job satisfaction and job performance have changed in the Provincial Government Western Cape (PGWC) after the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994. The specific research questions that were pursued included (i) has there been a shift from autocratic to a team-orientated management style in the PGWC?, (ii) has there been a shift from a task-orientated to a people-orientated v organisational culture in the PGWC?, (iii) what were the levels of job satisfaction among the employees, and (iv) how did these changes (if any) in organisational culture, management styles and job satisfaction impact the perceived job performance of these employees. The sample consisted of 100 managers selected from various departments in the PGWC. The empirical results indicated that there has been a shift to a team-orientated management style; that there has not been a shift from a task-orientated to a people-orientated organisational culture; that the perceived levels of job satisfaction and job performance levels are high; and that job satisfaction, especially as it relates to a challenging job content and job fit (in terms of personality, ability and skills), was the main determinant of the perceived job performance of the managers in the PGWC. The managerial implications of these empirical results are discussed and recommendations are proposed on the grounds of these discussions.