Justice in performance appraisal

Abstract

Performance appraisal serve different functions within a university. It helps to identify and evaluate the performance of individual faculty members. The purpose is to explore justices, that is satisfaction with, professional learning from and work motivation generated by performance appraisals. A quantitative research study with a survey in four universities in the west of Norway, 103 employees answered the questionnaire. Employees in universities are satisfied with and experience fair performance appraisal. They experience professional learning from fair performance appraisal, but not work motivation by fair performance appraisal. We found a weak correlation in the group of professors/researchers and administrative staff. There is a significant relationship between procedural justice and satisfaction with the performance appraisal system, and between procedural justice and professional learning. There is no significant relationship between procedural justice and work motivation generated by the performance appraisal system, only small significant relationship for managers and professors.