There is a human tendency to make judgements about those one is
working with, as well as about oneself. Performance appraisal seems to be
both inevitable and universal. With its absence, people tend to judge the
work performance of subordinates naturally, informally and arbitrarily. A
qualitative study was undertaken to explore and describe the experiences
and expectations of registered nurses in Lesotho regarding performance
appraisal. Recommendations are made according to the results of the
study and these will assist the NGOs which were part of this study and
the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Lesotho in the planning and
implementing of the performance appraisals of registered nurses.
Six phenomenological focus group interviews were conducted within the
selected institutions to ascertain the participantsâ experiences and
expectations in relation to performance appraisal. The meaning of these
experiences and expectations was also explored. Basic steps in qualitative
analysis as outlined by Ulin, Robinson, Tolly, & McNeill (2002) were used
to analyse the data.
The participants reported various experiences regarding performance
appraisal. They reported experiences such as an increase in motivation
and performance, receiving training, gaining insight into their own
performance and being able to refer problems to supervisors as a result
of performance appraisal. There were also feelings of dissatisfaction
such as performance appraisal being seen as a threat, a lack of commitment, poor appraisal skills, unreliable instruments, no benefits,
unclear purpose and the poor administration of performance appraisals.
They also expressed their expectations regarding performance appraisal.
Most of them would like the organisations to clarify the purposes of
performance appraisals and their involvement in them. Both appraisers
and appraisees should be trained in performance appraisal. The
instruments should be reviewed, consistency in the appraisal process
should be ensured and organisational decisions should be based on the
results of the appraisal.
The poor attitude and weak appraisal skills, inconsistencies in the
appraisal process, the unclear purpose, the inability of appraisers to
provide feedback and do follow-up, and also organisational decisions such
as salary increments not based on the results of appraisal, were a concern
across all the focus group interviews.
Recommendations were made in view of both the experiences and
expectations of these registered nurses. The organisation should define
and clarify the purpose and the relationship between appraisal,
performance and rewards, the results of the performance appraisal
should be analysed and used for making organisational decisions. The full
involvement of appraisees, the training of both appraisees and appraisers,
more frequent appraisals throughout the year, the development and
availability of standards of nursing care, the review and development of
appraisal instruments, and further research are needed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-01192007-101545 |
| Date | 19 January 2007 |
| Creators | Lethale, Mateboho Ntsoaki |
| Contributors | Prof A Joubert |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-01192007-101545/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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