Are Small Business Owners Using Performance Appraisals to Their Full Potential? An Exploratory Study

Authors

  • Anne M. Fiedler Barry University
  • Eddie Daghestani Barry University

Abstract

Recent articles have discussed the importance of the effective use of performance appraisals and creative ways that corporate America is using these tools to increase their managerial effectiveness. However, the study of the actual use of performance appraisals in  small businesses has received little attention. This exploratory study  examines  the  appraisal process within these organizations. Small business owners were randomly  surveyed  to discover who did the appraisals, how frequently they were done, what  dimensions  were deemed important, and what corrective actions were taken by the employer. Findings suggest that while small business owners realize that they should conduct some type of employee evaluation, they do not see the importance of incorporating a formal evaluation process into their management strategy. Guidelines are proposed for small business  owners for  the effective use of performance  appraisals.

References

Alexander, F. (1989, March). Performance appraisals. Small Business Repons. 20-29. Bassett, G.A., & Meyer, H.H. (1968). Performance appraisal based on self-review. Personnel Psychology. 21, 421 -430.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (1999). http://www.bls.gov

Bhote, K. ( 1994). Boss performance appraisal: A metric whose time has gone. Em ployment Relations Today. 21 (I ), 1-9.

Bracken, D.W., Summers, L., & Fleenor, J. (1998). High-tech 360. Train ing and Development. 52. (8), 42.

Carrell, M.R., Eiben, N.F. & Hatfield, R.D. (1995). Human resource management: Global strategies for managing a diverse work force (5"' ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cawley, B.D., Keeping, L. M., and Levy, P.E. (1998). Panicipation in the performance appraisal process and em ployee reactions; A meta-analytic review of field investigations review of field investigations. Journal of Applied Psychology, August.

DeLeon, L. and Ewen, A.J. (1997). Multi-source performance appraisals. Review of Publ ic Personnel Administration. 17 (I ), 22.

Howell, K. and Cameron, E. ( 1996, Aug 8). The benefits of an outsider's opinion. People Management, London.

Jacobs, H. (1993). The ratings game. Small Business Repons. October, 21-22.

Kane, J.S., & Lawler, E.E., Ill (1978). Methods of peer assessment. Psychological Bu lletin. 85, 555-586.

Landy, F.J., & Farr, J.L. (1983). The measurement of work performance: Methods. theory and applications, New York: Academic Press.

Lathan, G.P., & Wexley, K.N. (1994). Increasing productivity through performance appraisal (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Laumeyer, J., & Beebe, T. ( 1988). Employees and their appraisal. Personnel Administrator, 76-80.

Ludeman, K. (1991 ). Customized skills assessment. HRMagazine, 67-85.

Lyons, N.J. (1999). The 90-day checkup. Inc .. March.

Moss, S.E., & Martinko, M.J. (1998). The effects of performance attributions and outcome dependence on leader feedback behavior following poor subordinate performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior. May.

Pooyan, A., & Eberhardt, B.J. (1989). Correlates of performance appraisal satisfaction among supervisory and non-supervisory employees. Journal of Business Research, November. Renn, R.W., & Prien, K.O. (1995). Employee responses to employee feedback from the task. Group and Organization Management 20 (3), 337-352.

Roberts, G.E. (1995). Municipal government performance appraisal practices: Is the whole less than the sum of its parts? Public Personnel Management, 24 (2).

Rollins, T., & Fruge, M. (1992). Performance dimension: Competencies with a twist. Training, January, 47-51.

Saal, F.E., & Knight, P.A. ( 1988). Industrial/organizational psychology. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole.

Stewart, T.A. (1996). Taking on the last bureaucracy, Fortune, January 15, 105-106.

Svatko, J.E. (1989). Simplifying the performance appraisal. Small Business Reports, March, 30-33.

Wanguri, D. M. ( 1995) A review, an integration, and a critique of cross-discipline research on performance appraisal, evaluations, and feedback. The Journal of Business Communication, July.

Downloads

Published

1999-06-17

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (1999)

Section

Articles

License

The Journal of Small Business Strategy (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
 
1.Author(s) hereby grant to Publisher all right, title, and interest in and to the Work, including copyright to all means of expression by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. If Publisher does not publish the Work within two (2) years of the Effective Date, copyright shall revert back to the Author. Publisher agrees to always credit Author(s) as the author(s) of the Work.
 
2.Publisher hereby grants Author a royalty-free, limited license for the following purposes, provided the Work is always identified as having first been published by Publisher.
    •The right to make and distribute copies of all or part of the Work for use in teaching;
    •The right to use all or part of the material contained in the Work in a book by the Author(s), or in a collection of the Author(s)’s work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work internally at the Author(s)’s place of employment, and for promotion and any other non-commercial purposes;
    •The right to use figures and tables from the Work for any purpose;
    •The right to make presentations of material from the Work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work on the Author(s)’s Web site and on the Author(s)’s university’s institute repository;
Such license shall be effective when the Work is first published in the Journal of Small Business Strategy.
 
3.The Author(s) represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author(s)’s original work and that Author(s) has full power to enter into this agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property right of another; (c) contains no materials which is obscene, libelous, defamatory or violates another’s civil right, right of privacy, or is otherwise unlawful; and (d) has not been previously published, in whole or in part. Author(s) shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.

How to Cite

Are Small Business Owners Using Performance Appraisals to Their Full Potential? An Exploratory Study. (1999). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 10(2), 56-67. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/415