Dear Kumar:
Let me tell you one thing, objects vary from place to place or environment to environment, but it doesn't mean you can change whole concept, what I'm trying to establish here, we south asian people; "look good, do nothing, and pin others" specially when we got power, but we don't see Performance Appraisal as a system of determining how well an individual employee has performed during a period of time. Now here's problem, if some one is performing with his heart and soul without any prior record then mostly likily, he or she will get reward which depends on the humour of his/her boss, but if you have decided each and every task to be done according to quarter by that employee, then superior can't play with sub-ordinate very easily as employee has record, what he was asked to perform or what he has done according to his manager demand/desire. Like in our case as I'm working in large conglomerate, managers have great power and they can easily play with their sub-ordinates and leave the impression of slay-monster so, to over come this problem we have made known KPI system in appraisal process through which subordinate will be assessed. KPIs carry bigger marks as compare to core/professional competencies, simultaneously we have given so many right to subordinate to produce material which can make genuine your evaulation, He or She can also challenge, If any one feels he/she is being treated unfairly, and then he can argue by showing his/her KPI result, which was set in the beggining of year? make sense now? ( but all these things depend, in which kind of environment you are working, if you are working among goofies then see this sunday newspaper, and go for some good opportunity) Cheerio AdaM