ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF DISCERNMENT OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT THE UNIVERSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, DUNGU CAMPUS

This research project was set out to examine Administrative Staff discernment of performance appraisal system at the University for Development Studies, Dungu Campus. The review of existing literature included the management of performance appraisal system in organization. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used. The research designs used were survey and case study. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used. Questionnaires were used to collect data from Administrative Staff. Face -to-face in depth individual interviews were also used to collect data from Assistant Registrars. Permissions were sought from the university management. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel 2007 were used to analyse the field data. The qualitative data were analysed manually. The findings were that: the management of performance appraisal in the university offers a valuable opportunity to employees to focus on work activities, goals, to identify and correct existing problems of employees and to encourage better future performance of employees. Performance appraisals have far reaching consequences on employees’ motivation and performance when evaluators discriminate, when there is organizational politics and when employees are victims of unfair performance evaluation. There is no regular assessment of performance of employees, appraisal process is not based on accurate and current job descriptions of employees, Sources of rater bias and errors can be resolved by improving on organizational justice, by retraining of raters/managers and the use of multiple‐rater evaluation using 360‐degree. Some recommendations made were: It is recommended that the management of the University should recruit Performance Evaluation experts to augment the existing staff of the Huma Resources Department. The Huma Resources Department of the University should organize performance appraisal awareness training for all staff of the university.