Employee Perception of Performance Appraisal in Commercial Banks in Kisumu County, Kenya

Abstract

Employees’ perception of performance appraisal influences the level of commitment towards achieving organizational goals and ultimately their behaviors. If employees experience satisfaction with performance appraisal, they will have the motivation to adopt positive behaviors in their organization. Employee’s perception towards performance appraisal is a vital element in the overall human resource management function in commercial banks. The main objective of this study was to determine employee perception towards performance appraisal in Commercial banks in Kisumu, Kenya. The study adopted cross sectional research design. The study’s population were all employees of commercial banks in Kisumu City. This study employed Morgan Krejcie (1970) table to calculate the sample size of 103. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to get a suitable sample from the target population. This research used data of primary nature with the main data collection instrument being a self- administered questionnaire consisting of both structured close and open-ended questions. Collected data was edited, coded and assessed for completeness and information consistency. The study adopted bot descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data and arrive at the findings. The descriptive findings showed that employee’s perception towards the existing performance appraisal was positive. Correlation analysis indicates employees’ perception of performance appraisal was positive and significant when managers discuss and review their performance appraisal results, the results are statistically associated with 70% increase in positive perception of performance appraisal by employees. 64.7%. When the current performance appraisal is fair and unbiased and when their organizations provided them with feedback. The findings also established that when employees were not able to express their feelings and views during the processes of performance appraisal, their perception towards performance appraisal to be negative and significant. The study’s main limitation was that the findings were limited to the perception of the employees domiciled in commercial banks in Kisumu city and thus, generalization of findings becomes difficult. It’s therefore recommended that banks need to develop a good appraisal feedback system, discuss appraisal results, design ways to communicate appraisal results and design an appraisal procedure so that every employee is conversant with the appeal process