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Performance appraisals

- a study of the performance appraisals significance as a tool for development in the public sector.

Anders Larsson and Åsalill Olsson

Performance appraisals have been given a central role in leading businesses in the public sector and are seen as a tool to create development opportunities and achieve better results. This has resulted that performance appraisal in many organizations takes up capacity and time. This was the starting point of our interest to study whether the time spent on performance appraisals effectively pays for itself in the organization, in other words whether the effects expected actually are achieved. The paper examines first line managers` views on staff appraisal purposes and effects of a function within the Landstinget. The survey design, methodology and transaction are of qualitative and quantitative method with three different sources: literature review of previous research, interviews with first line managers in Landstinget Västmanland and the results from an employee satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of Landstinget Västmanland. The result shows that the majority of first line managers` views on the purpose of staff appraisal are that they have a focus on the individual worker and the work environment and not to any significant degree is their purpose linked to the work place goals or to improve the performance of the organization.

Keywords: leadership, performance appraisals, leadership styles, leader behavior, leader.