THE ROLE OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM ON STAFF PERFORMANCE AT THE NORTHERN REGIONAL CO-ORDINATING COUNCIL

Abstract

The study evaluated the performance appraisal system and its effect on employee performance at the Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council, Tamale. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Primary and secondary sources of data were used for the research. Close-ended questionnaires were used in the collection of the primary data with a sample size of 86. Quantitative approached was adopted to analyze the data. This revealed that, the Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council has an appraisal system in place to appraise her employees. Key performance criteria (i.e., competencies, behaviors, result/outcomes) have been clearly identified in the appraisal system. There is understanding and support from key stakeholders such as workers and supervisors and the performance criteria have been extracted from an upto- date job description. The study revealed that performance appraisal makes staff to work harder than expected. PA helps in professional development in identifying strengths and weakness in performance and implementing strategies for improvement. PA helps in identifying systematic factors that are barriers to effective performance. The study concluded that there is low commitment to performance appraisal. Supervisors do not display the right attitude to help the process and most workers see the usefulness of the system only when they are due for promotion to their next grades. Thus, it is recommended that as a way of effectively utilizing performance appraisal results, PA should directly link to training, promotions and rewards. By this, the Coordinating Council is expected to use performance appraisal results to train staff whose performances are below expectation in their area of specialization.