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In this two‐part article the problems of operating employee appraisal schemes effectively are identified. Appraisal of formal appraisal schemes suggests that most do not operate satisfactorily. Multi‐purpose schemes can be cumbersome and include conflicting objectives. The feedback process can also cause major problems. Such problems can be exacerbated with schemes of 360‐degree appraisal according to their complexity and the role conflicts they can precipitate. In the second part of the article the level of organisational investment needed for schemes to operate effectively is considered. The ways in which competencies, self‐appraisal, and peer audit can be constructively used are examined. Competencies developed for selection purposes may be usefully applied in appraisal, provided they are accurate. The crucial link between formal and informal appraisal processes is considered as is the importance and skills involved in informal appraisal. Finally, the way in which the training needs of appraisees need to be realistically identified and assessed is explained.

The first of two studies concerned with the design and implementation of staff appraisal schemes. It is based on research material gathered while working on consultancy projects, designing and implementing appraisal, in five different organizations. A classification scheme is developed which can be used to describe the differences between the schemes in the five organizations, and by extension the differences between any appraisal schemes. This classification uses a basic distinction between purpose of appraisal and design features, and it is used to describe in detail the schemes implemented in two of the organizations. It is therefore preliminary to the second study in which an attempt is made to conceptualize and interpret the differences between the schemes.

Comprises Part II of a two‐part exploration of the consequences of variability in the design of appraisal schemes. While Part I was descriptive, Part II suggests prescriptions to help scheme designers to devise proposals which are commensurate with appraisees′ worries, arguments and expectations.

The problems of operating employee appraisal schemes effectively are identified in this two‐part article. Appraisal of formal appraisal schemes suggests that most do not operate satisfactorily. Multipurpose schemes can be cumbersome and include conflicting objectives. The feedback process can also cause major problems. Such problems can be exacerbated with schemes of 360‐degree appraisals, according to their complexity and the role conflicts that they precipitate. In the second part of the article, the level of organisational investment needed for schemes to operate effectively is considered. The ways in which competencies, self‐appraisal and peer audit can be constructively used are examined. The crucial link between formal and informal appraisal processes is considered as is the importance and skills involved in an informal appraisal. Finally, the way in which the training needs of appraisees need to be realistically identified and assessed is also explained.

INTRODUCTION Performance appraisal and review, sometimes also referred to as merit rating, staff appraisal, or personnel assessment (although these terms are by no means synonymous), is a process in which “bosses” regularly evaluate and report on the performance, attainments, abilities, potential for future development and other qualities of their organisational subordinates.

Performance appraisal schemes have been with us for many years yet are still little used. On a public course for junior management it is rare to find more than a third of the delegates from companies who have such a scheme. Even among this third there are many who have not had an appraisal interview in the last 12 months. Performance appraisal as a management tool has obviously failed—or has it?

On the whole appraisal schemes and interviews are not popular with those who are asked to implement them. This resistance, which has occasioned a great deal of debate and anguish in the management literature is usually held to result either from a lack of training and general sophistication on the part of the delinquent manager, or from his unwillingness to jeopardise his relationships with his subordinates, who are also his colleagues. However it can also be argued, as this article does, that such unpopularity, and consequent resistance stems from the fact that managers' work performances — which are appraised and discussed at the appraisal interview — are not simply the outcome of the managers' individual abilities, skills, attitudes and predispositions. They are also deeply influenced by his membership of, and location in, the organisation. The most relevant aspect of this organisational membership is that managers are constrained and limited by what is known as the structure of the organisation. This concept and its implications are discussed below.

This paper seeks to report the findings of a study focusing on the state of teacher appraisal in Kenyan secondary schools and to argue for an improved (facilitating) model of teacher appraisal.

The study adopted a qualitatively‐oriented case study using multiple cases and drawing on multiple methods of data collection.

The findings indicate that teacher appraisal policies and practices in Kenyan secondary schools exhibit weaknesses, which need to be urgently addressed if teacher appraisal is to be used to improve the quality of teaching and education in Kenya.

Of the eight administrative regions in Kenya, only one region was selected for data gathering. The reason for restricting the scope of the study related to availability of time in the first instance and the need for in‐depth investigation. The research was also limited to a study of six secondary schools. While including more schools in the sample would have widened the focus of the study, limited time and funding made such a wider study prohibitive. Moreover, the six schools, consisting of two private schools, and four public schools of various sizes, provided the opportunity to study Kenyan secondary schools in a variety of contexts.

There is a dearth of research‐based information on teacher appraisal in third world countries – especially Kenya – and this paper will therefore in itself be beneficial to education policy makers. This paper offers a more sophisticated conceptualisation of teacher appraisal, thereby laying a foundation for subsequent investigations. Such a conceptualisation should serve as a basis, not only for evaluating the existing teacher appraisal system in Kenya, but also for offering guidance for future practice and policy.

The assessment of job performance is one of the most vexed problems of organisational administration. It is a problem perennially avoided by managers, yet it is one which will not go away. Without some indicators of achievement, we are told, accountability for the deployment and use of resources becomes a mockery, and organisational control is rendered impossible. Yet for one or more persons to sit in judgment on the job performance of another is, to say the least, distasteful to some, and indeed inimical and deeply offensive to not a few. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL, as it is called, is thus a paradox. The logic of efficiency demands it, but equally strongly the logic of sentiment rejects it as unacceptable. What, then, is to be done?

The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions: