Abstract:
Performance Appraisal System (PAS) is one of the important components of human resource management. A properly functioning and the sound performance appraisal system is inevitable to maintain a potential and competitive workforce for any organization irrespective of public or private. Performance appraisal system, known as Annual confidential Report (ACR) in Bangladesh civil service, is one of the key criteria for promotion from junior to senior scale. But nowadays the ACR system is highly dominated and subjugated by many political & administrative factors like politicization, Tadbir and status of relationship with reporting officer. The poor performance and prevailing gross inefficiency of civil servants give the impression that the present appraisal system is highly biased.
This paper is an endeavor to diagnose the loopholes and prevailing affecting factors of Performance Appraisal System in Bangladesh civil service. Furthermore, It will also examine the effectiveness of Annual confidential Report (ACR) system as a tool of promotion. In this study effectiveness of the Performance Appraisal System of Bangladesh civil service will be measured with three independent variables, i.e. Annual confidential
Report (ACR), Academic and organizational performance, Existing Rules & regulations.
To explore these problems, both primary and secondary sources of data will have used. Primary data will be collected through a structured interview with entry-level, mid-career and retired civil servants. Existing policies, regulations, and all sorts of available document pertaining to performance measurement system and promotion of civil servants will be used as secondary sources of data. The present structure of ACR form and marks on ACR will be analyzed as well.
Keywords: Performance Appraisal System, Annual Confidential Report,
Promotion Process, Effectiveness of the System.
Introduction:
Performance Appraisal means to evaluate the ability and competence of the employees of the organization to perform a job. Failure and success of an organization is totally depends on the performance ability and quality of its
employees. Nowadays, almost every organization, whether it is a private or public organization, maintains some sorts of performance measurement system to ensure a standard workforce.. So PAS is an integral part of organizational human resource management function.
Performance Appraisal System is not a modern phenomenon. To manage a large scale labor force, the first notable initiative in systematic performance appraisal was introduced by Robert Owen in his Lanark textile mills during the 1800s (Haque, 2012). Later on, the concept of ‘scientific management’ propounded by F.W. Taylor dominated this technique through quantitative methods to measure work performance. With the advent of New Public Management (NPM) during the late 1970s, performance management of public officials got an impetus aiming to know ‘who contributes what, why, and how’ in order to ensure effective and efficient uses of public resources. Initially, The wave of NPM shaped up the administrative structure of Bangladesh civil service with focusing on structural variables. By the passage of time and due to the narrow outcome of structural transformation, the implication of performance appraisal of public officials got the great impression in the promotion system with other criteria. But this system could not perform its function beyond the bureaucratic rigidity, political affinity and corruption, batch culture and nepotism. Due to the lack of enough willingness, this vital aspect of administrative development has been ignored from our reform agenda. However, this paper will articulate the extent of effectiveness of performance appraisal system in the promotion process of Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS).
Problem Statement:
A handful number of researches have been conducted on the effectiveness of performance appraisal system of Bangladesh Civil Service by addressing predominant problems and controversial issues.
The present format of ACR is believed to be subjective as it solely depends on the judgment and evaluation made by the reporting officers. In most cases the ACRs are not written by the superior on a regular and timely basis and even when written, these are found to be arbitrary and influenced by personal ‘pull’ or ‘tadbir’ or other connections or malpractices.
Massive politicization of the process of deciding promotion cases. Poor performance and lack of competence among the civil servants are the apparent symbol of the deep rooted problems.
This scenario creates the need for tracing out the underlying problems and issues and to provide the essential remedies for a better system.
Research Question:
On the basis of above argument the following research questions are set to search for. The
Key research questions
are-1. Is the current appraisal system of Bangladesh civil service, fair enough to ensure smooth promotion process and to what extent?
2. If not, what factors are affecting the promotion process in the premises of performance appraisal system?
3. Is the Present structure of ACR can measure the actual performance of the officials?
Literature Review:
Here in this part we pay heed to the outcomes of literature review. There are a number of available researches on performance appraisal system of employees throughout the world, but it is quite rare works on the civil service of Bangladesh. A handful number of studies has found which focuses on the drawbacks and structural framework of the present ACR system.
Haque (2012) articulated in his study the difficulties in designing a good appraisal system in the public sector and provides a theoretical framework, arguing that the ‘goodness’ of PA system should be seen in its capacity to meet its predetermined objectives instead of counting on the so called infallible psychometric properties. His area of focusing was testing the validity, reliability and perceived fairness of present ACR in terms of ability to measure the performance of the civil servants.
Prescribed form of ACR contains basic two dimensional measurements- some factors dealing with the personality traits and some others are related to job performance. As each cadre has a unique functional nature, the present performance appraisal system puts emphasis on general personality traits rather than performance factors (Haque, 2012).
Some other mentionable key issues arise during book review are ‘efficacy of the system’, ‘secretive and rigid nature of the system’, ‘dominance of the political and individual interest in the promotion system’, ‘bias and arbitrary nature of the appraisal system’.
Ali (2007) mentioned in his book that the existing system is not based on the yardstick. It is seen there that often supervisor’s prejudices and biases come into play which ultimately corrupt the whole purpose.
He also says one of the major problems of performance measurement system of Bangladesh is that the performance is not measured on actual standards. Senior officers have a tendency to give officers high marks who keep good relation with them.
Absence of a strong culture of monitoring and evaluating organizational performance in terms of output and outcome indicators in the public service. Nepotism is one of the biggest
problems in performance measurement system. For this the officials might be antagonistic to the introduction of the new system and implementation of the desired change might be hindered.
Research Methodology:
Sources of data:
For this study both primary as well as secondary data will be used. The primary data for the study will be collected with the help of with entry-level, mid-career and retired civil servants by using well-structured questionnaire and secondary data will gathered from books, journals and various websites.
Research Design:
As a Quantitative Research, Descriptive Research Design will be used to achieve the Objectives of the study.
Sampling Size:
For this study, 15 civil servants will have taken as the sample. The sample will be collected from different ministries of Bangladesh Government.
Sampling Technique:
The snowball sampling technique will be used in this Study. Selection of respondents from ministries will have done through snowball sampling.
Drawbacks and Limitation of the Study:
Every research has some sorts of default limitations. This study has some limitations and weakness as well. Because of bureaucratic rigidity and unwillingness to share information, It will be a little bit difficult to find out the true information for the study. During reviewing the previous works on the current situation of performance appraisal system may go missing. Moreover, the study will be done with a view to address the problems. Sufficient information to perceive the problems might be a big hurdle. Last but not least, sufficient research works might not be found in this regard.
Result and Discussion:
This section contains the analysis of data collected during the survey. The collected primary data will be analyzed by using MS-Excel. Collected data will be interpreted as per the objectives of the study. The key objective of the study is to measure the efficacy of the performance appraisal system in ensuring sound promotion process. To explore the drawbacks of the promotion process of Bangladesh Civil Service, It will be an exploratory study. The hypothesis based on this objective are
-H0 – Current Performance Appraisal System will be less effective to
measure the actual performance of the employees.
H1 -- There will be any other problems dominating the both appraisal system
as well as promotion process.
To achieve this objective average value of the responses on effectiveness will be taken and it will be analyzed in a qualitative manner.
