Summarize the following article: The Value of Behaviorally Based Performance Appraisals

A performance appraisal instrument based on behavior not only provides a gauge by which an employees work can be judged, it also presents guidelines for improving worker effectiveness.

WILLIAM J. KEARNEY

Employee performance appraisal is typically considered by managers to be necessary, but difficult and usually unpleasant.

Such apprais­ als seem to promise so much for the effective and efficient functioning of organizations, yet they often deliver so little.

At times, they create as many problems, or more, than they solve; the aftereffects often defeat their pur­ poses, and the residue of ill feeling lingers on and on.

A review of the literature on performance appraisal instruments suggests the following:

Much effort has been devoted to developing or refining a single appraisal system to serve both judgmental and developmental needs.