Improving the appraisal interview

On the whole appraisal schemes and interviews are not popular with those who are asked to implement them. This resistance, which has occasioned a great deal of debate and anguish in the management literature is usually held to result either from a lack of training and general sophistication on the part of the delinquent manager, or from his unwillingness to jeopardise his relationships with his subordinates, who are also his colleagues. However it can also be argued, as this article does, that such unpopularity, and consequent resistance stems from the fact that managers' work performances — which are appraised and discussed at the appraisal interview — are not simply the outcome of the managers' individual abilities, skills, attitudes and predispositions. They are also deeply influenced by his membership of, and location in, the organisation. The most relevant aspect of this organisational membership is that managers are constrained and limited by what is known as the structure of the organisation. This concept and its implications are discussed below.