IJTEMT; www.ijtemt.org; EISSN: 2321-5518; Vol.

II, Issue VI, Dec 2013

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
A CASE STUDY OF CPP LALKUAN

Mr. Udit Pandey, Member IJTEMT Ms. Anupa Chaudhary, Member IJTEMT, IEDRC
Assistant Professor Assistant Professor
Department of Management Studies, Kumaun University Seemant Institute of Technology
Campus Bhimtal, Uttarakhand, India Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand, India

Abstract—The management of human resources is a very employees. To reward an employee for the certain level of
complicated task for those who are entrusted with successful target achieved performance appraisal is used. The
running of an organization and this implies considerable measurement of performance in the Century Pulp and Paper is
knowledge of various aspects of “Personnel Management” in carried out with the help of different tools for different levels of
which the performance appraisal takes a very important role. employees described below :
This study focuses on evaluating the performance appraisal
techniques followed in CPP Lalkuan and identifying the response a) Performance Planning Review and
of the employees toward those practices. Development(PPRD)-Quarterly

Keywords-performance appraisal, effective performance, goal b) Annual Individual Merit Ratting

settting, employees commitment, employees performance, c) Performance Appraisal-Annual
employees satisfaction.
d) Self Assessment-Annual
I. INTRODUCTION In Century Pulp and Paper the application of performance
Century pulp & paper a unit of century textiles & industries technique is for the staff and other higher level employees. The
ltd. & a member of B.K.BIRLAGroup of companies is blessed reason for limiting the application is the high staff and
with the able & astute guidance of its chairman BASANT workman in the organization to the extent of 2282. The
KUMAR JI BIRLA.The Company is a pioneer in bringing performance measurement for the superintendent and above is
industralisation in lalkuan, Small Township of distt. Nainital in done through PPRD .
Uttarakhand on barielly nainital road, 29 Deg. 5’minute. N According to Roland Benjamin a “performance appraisal
latitude& 79 Deg. 30’ minute E longitudes, Elevation of 257m determines who shell receive merit increases” counsels
above mean sea level. The company has a human resource base employees on their improvement, determines training needs,
of around 2282 people . determines promotion ability, identifies those who should be
Century pulp & paper was established in 1984 with an transferred. Moreover it improves employees job performance,
installed capacity of 20,000 TPA of writing printing paper & encourages employees to express their views or to seek
20,000 TPA of rayon grade pulp. After modernization & clarification on job duties, broadens there outlook, capacity and
expansion, presently the production capacities have risen to potential, promotes a more effective utilization of man power
31300 TPA rayon grade pulp, 37250 TPA paper (wood based and improves placement, facilitates selection, reward and
plant) & 84600 TPA paper (bagasse based plant). The bagasse promotion of the best qualified employee, prevents grievances
based paper plant of CPP is unique in the country. It is and increases the analytical abilities of supervisors.
equipped with latest technology to produce bagasse paper of It effect promotions based on competence &
competitive quality in national as well as international market. performance.
The company is pioneer in bagasse based paper manufacturing
throughout the country. Access the training & development need of
employees.
CPP is one organization where paper from two different
raw materials & rayon grade pulp are manufactured under one To decide upon a pay raise.
roof. The company makes wide variety of writing printing To let the employees know where they stand in so as
paper & high quality dissolving grade pulp. their performance in concerned and to assist them with
49

In order to gauge the performance of employees in terms of constructive criticism and guidance for the purpose of their
their quality and quantity of work, performance assessment is development.
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carried out at regular intervals for further improvement, To improve communication.

development and advancement of performance so as to achieve
organization's objectives as well as overall development of

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To evaluate whether H.R. programs such as selection, 2) DISTORTIONS
training, transfers are being effective or not.
Distortions are the error and biasedness in evaluating the
To discriminate between efficient and inefficient performance. Evaluator may introduce such distortions
workers. consciously or unconsciously. Distortions are:
To assign the individual work for which they are best (A) HALO EFFECT
suited.
When rater is influenced by rate’s one or two outstandingly
To prevent employee grievances. good (of bad) performances and he evaluates the entire
performance based upon that.
II. BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL (B) CENTRAL TENDENCY
Appraisal of personnel, both performance and potential, is When failing in discriminating best and the worst he marks
used by every organization either formally or informally. average to all. The main reason for this is his lack of
However, this is full of shortcomings and limitations. There are knowledge, taste, indifference, or carelessness.
certain barriers, which work against the effective appraisal
systems. Some of these barriers are more pronounced in (C) CONSTANT ERRORS
specific methods of appraisal, in some methods. Identification
This error arises because of the nature of the observer. It
of these barriers is essential so that suitable measures any be
might be possible that some observer always gives higher
adopted to reduce their impact to a possible minimum level.
marks and some always give low. But there might be chances
The barriers to effective appraisal may be grouped in three
that some of the observer may give marks on potential
categories:
performance rather than on recent one.
1. Faulty assumptions
(D) OBSERVER’S LIKING AND
2. Psychological blocks, and DISLIKING
3. Technical pitfalls. Superiors closeness or distance to some of his subordinates
results into liking or disliking, which influences his observation
1. FAULTY ASSUMPTIONS and hence rating to them. There might be personal or emotional
Faulty assumptions of the parties concerned – superior and reasons for such biases.
his subordinate – in appraisal system, leads to non proper
working or objectively. These faulty assumptions work against III. OBJECTIVES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
an appraisal system as:
Performance appraisal practices show that organizations
1) The assumption about fair and accurate undertake performance appraisal to meet certain objectives
appraisal among the managers for subordinates is untenable. which are in the form of salary increase, promotion, identifying
Both superiors and subordinates show tendencies to avoid training and development needs, providing feedback to
formal appraisal processes, as well as to head them in their employees and putting pressure on employees for better
respective work roles. performance.
2) The managers also have a faulty assumption 1. SALARY INCREASE: Performance appraisal is a tool
that what they have prepared once will last longer and will not in planning salary hikes. Usually salary hikes are dependent on
require any changes in future. It should be recognized that no employee’s performances. Upon these performances there are
system can provide perfect, absolutely defensible, appraisal continuous formal and informal evaluations conducted by
devoid of subjectivity. superiors. In a small organization, since there is a direct contact
between the employee and the one who make3s decisions about
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL BLOCKS salary increase, performance appraisal can be an informal
There psychological blocks that works against an effective process. However, in a large organization where such contact
appraisal system are: managers feeling of insecurity, appraisal hardly exists, formal performance appraisal has to be
as an extra burden, their being excessively modes or skeptical, undertaken. This is an indicator of employee’s performance
their feeling to treat their subordinate’s failure as their and based upon the performance deciding his compensation
deficiency. plan.
3. TECHNICAL PITFALLS 2. PROMOTION: Performance appraisal plays a significant
role where promotion is based on merit. Most of the
Technical pitfall lies in two categories:
50

organizations often use a combination of merit and seniority for

1) CRITERION PROBLEM promotion. Performance appraisal disclosed how an employee
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is working in his present job and what his strong and weak
It is the standard of performance set by the senior for his points are. In the light of these, it can be decided whether he
subordinate and keeping it benchmark he compares his can be promoted to the next higher position and what additional
subordinates performance. training will be necessary for him. Similarly, performance

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appraisal can be used for transfer, demotion and discharge of
an employee. 60
3. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Performance
appraisal tries to identify the strengths and weaknesses of an 50
employee on his present job. This information can be used for
devising training and development programmes appropriate for 40
overcoming weaknesses of the employees. In fact, many
organizations use performance appraisal as means for 30
STAFF
identifying training needs of employees.
20
4. FEEDBACK:
Performance appraisal provides feedback to employees 10
about their performance. It tells them where they stand. A
person works better when he knows how he is working; how 0
his efforts are contributing to the achievement of organizational a b c d
objectives. This works in two ways. First, the person gets
feedback about his performance and he may try to overcome The graph interprets that only 45.71 % of staff persons believe
his deficiencies, which will lead to better performance. Second, that the performance appraisal system reflect the real picture of
when the person gets feedback about this performance, he can performance always whereas 51.42 % staff person believe that
relate his work to the organizational objectives. it reflects of performance often. The few 2.87 % of staff
This provides him satisfaction that his work is meaningful. persons think that it provide performance real picture seldom.
Thus, given the proper organizational climate, he will try his The above graph depicts that the performance system needs to
bet to contribute maximum to the origination. be more performance related with context to the employee.
5. PRESSURE ON EMPLOYEES B. Does performance system help to improve one’s
Performance appraisal puts a sort of pressure on employees knowledge and skills?
for better performance. If the employees are conscious that they a) Yes b) To some extent
are being appraised in respect of certain factors and their future c) No d) Can’t say
largely depends on such appraisal, they tend to have positive
and acceptable behaviour in this respect. Thus, appraisal can
work automatically as control device. 70

Above roles of performance appraisal are quite important. 60

However, these roles can be performed only when there is 50
systematic performance appraisal, and various relevant
decisions are made objectively in the light of result of 40
performance appraisal. To be systematic and objective in
performance appraisal, managers require an understanding of 30 STAFF
various intricacies involved in performance appraisal like
methods of performance appraisal, problems in performance 20
appraisal and have these problems can be overcomes. 10

IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDING AND CONCLUSION 0

a b c d
Along with secondary data available from the company’s
documents, primary data is also collected using a closed ended
questionnaire survey among 50 employees of the company Well it can be depicted from the graph that 68.57 % of staff
using a convenience sampling. And the findings can be made persons are benefited n improving their knowledge and skills
on the basis of following results: whereas 31.43 % of staff persons are get improved to some
extent. Thus the performance appraisal system also helps the
A. Does performance appraisal system reflects the real organization to reduce their training and development part as
performance appraisal system fulfills the objective to some
picture of an employee’s performance?
extent.
51

a) Always b) Often
c) Seldom d) Never C. Are you satisfied with outcomes of the performance
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appraisal?
a) Yes b) To some extent
c) No d) Can’t say

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c) 360-Degree Appraisal d) None of these

60 50

50 40

40 30
STAFF
30 20
STAFF
10
20
0
10 a b c d

0
The graph interprets that 48.58 % staff persons says that the
a b c d
target fixed method is more useful in C.P.P. as it is associated
with production whereas 31.42 % staff says that 360 degree
appraisal system can be more effective for the organization. 20
The 60 % of staff is satisfied with outcome of the % of the staff persons thinks that marking system is suitable
performance appraisal whereas 40 % are satisfy with it to some for it. This signifies that the target fixing being more supported
extent. Thus the performance appraisal system is able to satisfy whereas 360degree appraisal is also being suggested by staff
the majority of the staff persons. persons.

F. Does the present appraisal system needs some

improvement?
D. Is there any chance for appraiser to get biased
for/against any employee? a) Yes b) To some extent
c) No d) Can’t say
a) Yes b) To some extent
c) No d) Can’t say
35
30
40
35 25
30 20
25
15 STAFF
20
STAFF
15 10
10
5
5
0 0
a b c d a b c d

Well it can be depicted from the graph that 40 % of staff says

that there can be chance of biasedness by appraiser .28.57 % of Well it can be depicted from the graph that 31.42 % staff
the staff persons says there is no chance of biased ness whereas says that the system is required full or to some extent
22.86 % of staff persons says that they can’t say anything about
52

improvement in it, whereas 20 % staff says that it doesn’t

it. The 8.57 % staff says there is a possibility if biasedness. require any improvement with 17.16 % staff does not have any
idea . Thus the graph result depicts that the present system
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E. In the C.P.P. what type of performance appraisal system needs improvement with the mutual concern of employee
will be more effective? needs and organizational objective.
a) Target Fixing b) Marking System

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G. Suggestions [1] T. V. Rao and K. K. Verma, “Human Resource Development,” Rawat
Publication, pp. 170–171, Reprint 1997.
A. The supervisor should not play dual and conflict role [2] Dessler, G. and Varkkey, B., ‘Human Resource Management’, Pearson
of both the judge and the helper. 12th Edition.
B. The employee should be consulted regarding the [3] http://www.educationobserver.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12474
selection procedure of performance appraisal. [4] http://www.slidesandnotes.com/2011/02/objectives-of-performance-
appraisal.html
C. There should be an efficient system of providing [5] http://sudhitasb.pbworks.com/f/HRM-+Performance+Appraisal.doc
feedback of the employee on the basis of their performance [6] Company documents and profile.
appraisal.
D. Performance appraisal should be made to relate all AUTHORS PROFILE
their department activities like career, counseling, career Authors Profile …
planning, Promotion and T & D etc.

REFERENCES

53 Page

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