Performance Appraisal Dilemma: Should We Prioritize Individual or Organizational Focus?

Performance Appraisal: Individual Focus vs. Organizational Focus

When there is an issue of performance appraisal, which one should come first: individual focus or organizational focus?

Both individual and organizational focus are important. However, organizational focus should come first. Then, you need to ensure that individual focus is aligned with the organizational focus. Without this alignment, both the organization and the individual will not succeed.

If you only focus on the individual and if it's not aligned with the organizational focus, then the organization will not benefit. The whole point for any company to hire an individual is to get that individual to work towards the organizational goals. Performance appraisal is done to ensure that an individual is working well towards achieving the organization's goals. If they are not working towards the organization's goals, then the individual will need to start changing the way they work or be shifted to another department where they can contribute to meeting the organization's goals. Despite everything, if the individual is still not working towards the organizational goals, then it's better for the individual to be separated from the organization to ensure that the organization finds a better individual suited for that role. Thus, organizational focus should be given more importance. Hope this answers your query.

An organizational PMS, if it's linked to the company's Annual Plan, which is a result of the vision of a company, and this annual plan flows into individual employees' KRAs, ensures that the organization's focus is not lost and the individual focus linked to the company's vision remains intact. Employees may take on some individual KRAs as long as they are serving the organizational interest.

Hi Asifbd_2012, Nvs123 has explained beautifully that when it comes to performance appraisals, organizational focus is more important.

As you know, the purpose of performance appraisal is to assess and manage the performance of employees individually and/or in a team. But what are the metrics and standards that are used to assess employee performance and how are they set? They are set based on organizational goals.

At the beginning of the appraisal period, managers usually discuss with their subordinates these performance standards based on which individual employee performance goals are set. Therefore, you can say that organizational goals and objectives are the pivot around which everything is performed, evaluated, improved, and re-evaluated.

So, clearly organizational focus takes priority, and a trade-off between the two is not done. They do co-exist sometimes, but I don't think you will ever come across a situation where organizational focus took a back seat to accommodate individual focus.

Regards, Purva

As rightly mentioned by everybody above, the organizational goals are the priority. At the beginning of the year, individual goals are aligned with the organizational goals for better performance; in this way, both parties benefit. The main objective of the performance appraisal process is to assess whether the individual is in sync with the organizational goals.

Hope this answers your questions.

Regards.

Always remember that the biggest challenge remains the cascade of organizational goals into individual goals. So, prepare to work around that aspect as well.

My view here is that when a particular staff member has the favor of their manager, it becomes difficult for the manager to distinguish between their personal goals vis-a-vis the staff they favor and the organizational goals. To this extent, performance appraisal conflict emerges.