This study investigated the effects of the performance evaluation process on the morale, motivation, and productivity of civilian employees at Hill Air Force Base. This chapter presents the study purpose, problem statement, delimitations, and theoretical framework for the study.
The purpose of this study was twofold. The first goal of the study was to identify the effects of the performance evaluation process on the morale, motivation, and productivity of civilian employees at Hill Air Force Base. Prior to conducting the study, it was anticipated that it would be found that the existing performance evaluation process had negative effects on the morale, motivation, and productivity of civilian employees. Thus, the second goal of the study was to develop recommended corrective actions with respect to the performance evaluation process for civilian employees.
A concern with organizational performance (productivity) is one of the more significant of the many problems which confront managers in organizations in both the public and the private sectors.1 The costs to an organization of sub standard performance involve (1) profit deterioration (private sector), or budget overruns (public sector), (2) the diversion of
1P. F. Drucker, Managing in Turbulent Times (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1980), 11.
financial and human resources from productive to diagnostic and corrective activities, and (3) the introduction of discontinuity into organizational operations.2
The problem of productivity improvement is particularly acute for public sector organizations, where it is often argued that the inherently less efficient character of such organizations (in comparison with private sector organizations) dictate against the attainment of meaningful productivity improvements.3 In this context, it is often held that certain efficiency enforcing incentives present in private sector firms are absent in public sector organizations....