Human resource management (HRM) is responsible for, among other things, ensuring that employee performance management and evaluation systems or procedures are appropriate and conducive to proactive treatment of employees. Additionally, HRM must ensure that job prioritization or time management skills are mastered and employed by workers. This brief essay will consider the relative efficacy of three tools or techniques for each of these HRM functions.
Performance management or evaluation, according to John Ivancevich (261), is the HRM function or activity used to determine the extent to which an employee is performing the job effectively. Formal evaluation protocols are preferred over less formal or subjective evaluations and "reviews" because they lend objectivity, credibility and consistency to the evaluation process. Legally, such evaluations may be subject to careful scrutiny to determine whether or not employees are evaluated (and consequently retained or promoted) fairly.
Graphic rating scales, according to Ivancevich (272), allow a rater to rate employees using a numerical scale against a listing of specific traits or characteristics that capture information about the degree to which an employee exhibits or demonstrates skills and competencies linked to their particular job description and its activities. Graphic scales are seem by Ivancevich (273) as overly subjective, often vague, and not necessarily specific to a particular job.
Behaviorally anchored rating scales (CARS) consist of a performance management tool that relies on the use of critical incidents to serve as anchor statements on a scale. A BARS rating form usually contains 6 to 10 specific performance dimensions, each with 5 or 6 critical incident anchors. The rater reads the anchors and places an "X" at some point on the scale for the rate (Ivancevich, 276). BARS systems are seen as jargon-free, specific to a worker's job title and position and...