Orientation: For decades, organisations have implemented performance management systems in order to promote an environment focused on performance enhancement and employee development. Performance appraisals have consistently been at the centre of performance management systems. However, they are often perceived as being ineffective or unsatisfactory, resulting in dissatisfaction and contributing to financial and time losses. Performance Appraisal Satisfaction (PAS) amongst employees is, therefore, vital if organisations want to achieve desired outcomes. Limited research was found that explained or described methods which organisations can utilise to increase PAS amongst employees. Research rationale and objectives: As organisations become more global, innovative and employee-focused, the need to cater to individual needs and desires has significantly increased. This study aimed to investigate ways in which PAS can be increased through the individualisation of three performance appraisal aspects namely; number of raters; method of feedback and frequency of feedback. In terms of the individualisation factors, this study has focused on; level of perceived self-efficacy and the Big Five personality dimensions. Research approach: Given the limited pre-existing literature on this topic, the present study used an exploratory research approach to engage with the results in an in-depth manner. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected from employees and Human Resource practitioners in order to establish performance appraisal preferences and the viability of implementing individualised performance appraisals. Composite questionnaires consisting of Likert-type questions, choice-based conjoint tasks and open-ended questions, were distributed utilising a convenient and snowball methodology. Completed questionnaires were analysed by means of descriptive and inferential and statistics, conjoint analysis, as well as by means of a thematic analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Human Resource practitioners and analysed using a thematic analysis. Main findings: Results from the descriptive and inferential statistics indicate that the level of self-efficacy and personality-type are significant in predicting certain performance appraisal preferences. For example, respondents with increased levels of perceived self-efficacy significantly preferred face-to-face feedback from a manager (p < .05) while respondents with low levels of perceived self-efficacy significantly preferred impersonal feedback (p < .05). Results from the composite questionnaire’s open-ended items indicated that employees prefer performance appraisals which considered their personality type and level of self-efficacy. However, the thematic analysis conducted on the HR practitioner interviews revealed that HR practitioners are hesitant to implement a novel performance appraisal system for reasons including; gaining top-management support and the additional time and administrative burden it would likely impose on the HR practitioners themselves.

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed. The research was conducted at a medium-sized, niche consultancy that specializes in data analytics and data science. Interviews served as an initial pilot study to obtain contextual data to identify relevant justice measures in the procedural and informational justice domains. A questionnaire survey was selected to analyze whether knowledge work characteristics moderate the relationship between justice perceptions on appraisal satisfaction. Results support the underlying premise that positive justice perceptions lead to greater overall appraisal satisfaction. Median regressions were used to model the significant effect of procedural justice and informational justice on appraisal satisfaction. Consistent with prior research, the most autonomous workers reported the lowest levels of appraisal satisfaction. This may be explained by the heightened challenge in evaluating autonomous work that is not observed directly and may be difficult to measure. However, the moderating effect of knowledge work components produced some puzzling results. As expected, the knowledge work component of autonomy correlated negatively with the knowledge work components related to structure. Yet, autonomy and structure had similar moderating effects on the relationship between procedural justice and appraisal satisfaction. Although it was speculated that more autonomous workers would place less importance on procedural justice, the results indicated greater levels of autonomy strengthened the effects between the justice perceptions and appraisal satisfaction. Justice theory as it is applied to appraisal satisfaction is limited without considering the impacts on other constructs such as job satisfaction and motivation. Herzberg’s two-factor (hygiene) theory provides an example of how knowledge work components and procedural justice might be viewed as job “satisfiers” versus job “dissatisfiers”. The theory posits there are factors that contribute to job satisfaction that are separate and distinct from factors that contribute to dissatisfaction. "Satisfiers” include factors such as autonomy and achievement. In contrast, performance appraisals represent administrative processes within the category of “dissatisfiers”, or hygiene factors. When absent, these processes cause frustration and result in dissatisfaction. Practical implications from this study include the creation of composite measures for describing the abstract nature of latent measures such as justice perceptions and knowledge work. These measures serve as a heuristic to facilitate the analysis of human resource processes such as performance management.