Performance appraisal system is an important method to motivate researchers, to improve their performance, and to manage human resources. There have been a lot of studies emphasizing rating criteria, rater training, and rater accuracy. These studies, however, did not provide practical applications and made limited contributions to improve performance appraisal effectiveness.
The purpose of this study is to provide some practical guidelines for performance appraisal system for researchers and an improved performance appraisal format which contains items such as performance, ability and attitude. In order to achieve this purpose, R&D Center of Company A was investigated, and the factors affecting effectiveness and problems associated with performance appraisal system were analyzed.
In this study, factors affecting the effectiveness of performance appraisal system were reviewed, and a case study was conducted focusing on the components of performance appraisal system such as core, base and support systems. Additionally, in order to understand the obstacles associated with improvement of performance appraisal system, efforts were concentrated to identify underlying facts and perceptions through interviews with related persons.
In this study, practical guidelines in improving performance appraisal system at R&D Center of Company A were presented by considering all of components of performance appraisal system.
First, in the aspect of core system, goal and methods of performance appraisal system are to be changed in order to develop researchers' abilities and to increase productivity.
Second, for base system, systematic rater training is needed.
Third, in the aspect of support system, rating error checking system and feedback system should be built.
Fourth, in applying the performance appraisal results, purposes of applying the results should be diverse.
Further research is needed to overcome several shortcomings encountered in this study. Also more elaborated and refined research settings and comparative studies are needed.
