Problems associated with the management of performance appraisals in universities: The case of Ghanaian Public Sector Universities

Abstract

The use of performance appraisal, a presence of the private sector organisations, has now become wide spread and has grown to include previously untouched organisations and occupational hierarchies such as secretarial and administrative staff in both the public and private sectors. However, verv little has been reported in the literature concerning the perceptions and experiences of the universities in developing countries relating to performance appraisals. This study therefore sought to explore performance appraisal systems in the Ghanaian public sector universities to consider the perceptions and experiences of the administrative staff about the problems associated with the performance appraisal systems of the universities. The study adopted an exploratory, descriptive and evaluative triangulation case study approach and generated data through semistructured interviews and self-completing questionnaires from 401 university employees in Ghana from four of the six public sector universities. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis in the form of frequencies, percentages, means, graphs and content analysis were used to analyse the data. The results indicate that generally the perceptions of the administrative staff conceming the effectiveness of the present performance appraisal systems of the universities were skewed towards dissatisfaction because they lacked essential characteristics of an effective performance appraisal system. These include lack of c1early formulated and defined policies and objectives, performance measures, effective staff participation and training and development that could make them effective. The study concludes that there is a need for the universities to recognise their employees as valued resources and treat them as a source of competitive advantage which have to be strategically managed to achieve improved employee performance and development as well as the effectiveness of the universities.