ions; (2) planning activities performed by an individual; and (3) the conduct of job related activities by the individual. There is a trend toward results oriented performance appraisal. The performance appraisal process at Mervyn's Department Stores contains elements of both a process oriented procedure and a results oriented procedures.
Performance evaluations build a history of an individual's organizational life, and this history follows the individual throughout the length of a career. It is important, therefore, for the individual as well as the organization that the performance appraisal process be accurate and reliable.
Gortner (1992, p. 279) stated that an effective performance evaluation instrument or process must be objective, valid, and reliable. Objectivity in performance evaluation means that the instrument or process must provide an evaluator with a means of measuring performance criteria which does not require a subjective act on the part of the evaluator. Validity in a performance evaluation instrument or process means that the instrument (or procedure) really measures that which it is intended to measure. True validity is difficult to obtain in any evaluation instrument or process designed to evaluate human activities; however, the task is made infinitely less difficult, if the definition of that which is to be measured is simplified.
Thus, a performance evaluation instrument or process should be objective, valid, and reliable. It is difficult to argue against the inclusion of such criteria in the definition of what constitutes an acceptable instrument or process. It is much less difficult, however, to argue that the acceptability of a performance evaluation instrument or process cannot be judged only on the basis of these three criteria. In addition to objectivity, validity, and reliability, a performance evaluation instrument or process must, also, be relevant and equitable, and it must provide fo...