Developing a Performance Appraisal System free essay sample

| Developing a Performance Appraisal System| | Kerwin Johnson 4/17/2011 HSM/220 Fedder Williams Axia College of the University of Phoenix| | | | The purpose of a performance appraisal system is too help both the organization and the employee. In order for an organization to know and understand the value of the abilities that their employees have a system needs to be in place. This system should also let the employee understand where his abilities have positioned him within the organization. The motivation of employees is an on-going process, and can delivered in different formats such as daily coaching, weekly, monthly, or even yearly evaluations. This will allow for steady employee growth in productivity and effectiveness. The purpose is to help maintain this effectiveness and growth within the organization. Performance appraisal systems benefit organizations on a continuous basis by providing much feedback that can be utilized to make organizational changes for the future or in the present. There is, says Dulewicz (1989), â€Å"a basic human tendency to make judgments about those one is working with, as well as oneself. † Appraisal is inevitable in our world and without structure to the appraisal system; employees and their work will be judged informally. Appraisal systems should contain many elements to make them effective. The criteria that a good appraisal system should contain are personnel criteria, economic criteria, counseling criteria, and acceptance criteria. These criteria will make the appraisal process successful for both the organization and the employee who the appraisal is for. The element of personnel criteria is effective in research and allocating merit, and documentation and future training for the organization. Economic criteria allows for the organization to determine and understand its funding situation for cost effectiveness, raises, and training. Counseling criteria will allow for feedback between the organization and the employee which can be used to determine the merits that the employees will receive. Acceptance is equal on both sides, the employee and the organization, because it is based on sound results or findings which is used to rate the employee during the appraisal. The four elements that can best define and establish effective appraisal systems are setting objectives, manage performance, perform the appraisal, and provide feedback and merit as needed. Setting objectives is when you as management decide what you want from employees and agree to it. Managing the performance of employees is where as managers you give employees the tools and resources they need to achieve the set objectives. When necessary perform the appraisal, monitor and assess your employees’ performance and discuss the assessment with the employee and set future goals to achieve. Provide the necessary reward or merit based on the findings of the appraisal that you have performed on the employee or staff. As the director of human resources I am responsible for establishing an appraisal system for my organization. I have developed a system I have called EPAT; which is short for Employee Performance Appraisal and Tracking. This system will monitor and track employee progress and performance of individual employees and to keep record of all achievements reached within the organization. The rewards for employees have been revamped in accordance with a non- profit organization with limited budget. Rewards will be given to employees based on their work performance as well as time with the organization. Rewards will also be given as training achievements are accomplished. As the first 90 days of employment with the organization is achieved a pay increase will be given as long as all training is completed and no days have been missed. Other rewards that the organization will merit will be employee of the week, month, paid vacation, and mention in the monthly newsletter. The way that the EPAT works is that the program supervisor will use the EPAT forms to evaluate the employee on different criteria that will merit the employee raises and other rewards. The format of the EPAT is a 5 page appraisal form in which there is a section that contains 10 questions that will be asked of the employee during the appraisal this is page one, page two contains 18 points of emphasis that the organization feels is important to job performance such as ethical behavior, communication, integrity and steadiness. Page three will discuss client feedback and the anonymous feedback that they have given. Page four will be feedback from fellow coworkers within your department or program that they have given to management. Page five will be the employees’ opportunity to give feedback on their performance as well as the goals and objectives that they have set and achieved within the organization and their plans and thoughts to improve upon their performance and what they feel is necessary from the organization to meet these objectives and goals. In conclusion the performance appraisal system is not only a tool for the organization but the employee as well and that there are many elements and criteria that goes into these systems. When used properly the results can be mutually beneficial and profitable for both parties. My appraisal system is simple and inclusive of all those that the employee works and interacts with, as well as the employee themselves, thus the findings will be more fact based and readily acceptable by the employee. Reference Page http://www. opm. gov/perform/faqs/perfelem. asp http://www. performance-appraisal. com/intro. htm Designing Rewards System Research Paper/ Kerwin Johnson

E Gorvernment a Veritable Tool for the Stepping Down Corruption in Nigeria free essay sample

An average Nigerian citizen is scarcely aware of the activities of the government he is part of. The main focus of this paper is on the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in public administration businesses of Nigerian government. This paper aims at bridging the information gap that exists between the government and the public, which is capable of reducing corruption. In the course of this study, causes of corruption were identified as well as the benefits and challenges of E-government application. Key words: E-government, Information and Communication Technologies, Corruption, Internet. A few years ago, the popular slogan within the ICT society has been â€Å"the world is becoming a global village†. Going by the remarkable landmark recorded in the ICT world today, one can rightly say that the world is already a global village. Most nations of the world today use the internet as their major source of information generation, collation, and dissemination. The benefits accruing from the application of this technology is enormous and Nigeria cannot afford to be an exception. ICT has continued to make waves since the advent of computers in the 1950s. The increasing application of computers and other information technology (IT) related products in almost all facets of human life, has also contributed to the high growth of the ICT sector. ICTs involve the capture, processing of data and the dissemination of the resultant information using computers and its allied equipment and accessories to the masses. It is worthy to note that despite this rapid growth in the ICT industry, some developing countries including Nigeria are yet to achieve an appreciable level of computerization in their dealings. Opara (2007) stated â€Å"Nigeria has started but is still groping for the formula that will enable her achieve the optimum in IT†. The information society we live in, relies so much on computers and indeed the internet to enable us gather and disseminate information more quickly and easily too. The knowledge and ideas embedded in information Technology environment are the engines that drive the economy (Enyi, 2007). UNDP (2004) defined corruption as the misuse of public power, office or authority for private benefit through bribery, extortion, influence, peddling, nepotism, fraud, speed money or embezzlement. There is no gainsaying the effects of corruption on Nigeria and Nigerians. E-government on its part refers to â€Å"government’s use of ICT to work more effectively, share information and deliver better services to the public (Sub- hash and Christine, 2003). This mode of governance is highly beneficial as it makes administration easier and restores public confidence on the government. Various regimes of Nigerian government have identified corruption as the bane of Nigeria’s economic growth and development, and have initiated policies and programs to curb it (Okeke, 1996). These efforts have usually failed because information and communication technologies have not been given their proper place in the fight against corruption. That makes this paper imperative as it highlights the linkage between ICT and Governance. Causes of Corruption in Nigeria There are many factors that have been identified as the major causes of corruption in Nigeria. For the purpose of this paper, however, emphasis would be laid on those factors that can be linked to poor attitude towards ICT application. In this context, the causes of corruption in Nigeria include; Poor Electronic Accounting System This is the poor use of computer to perform accounting tasks. Most government agencies do not adopt this technology in their accounting processes. Where this is done, it is not linked to the internet (global network of computer networks). This almost makes it impossible for the public to hold the government officials accountable, which in turn encourages corruption. Poor Electoral System Election is the process by which leaders emerge. In the political history of Nigeria, many elections have been conducted and each of them heralded by so many complaints of irregularities. According to Agena (2007), Nigeria’s electoral process over the years has never had the people’s confidence, little wonder there have been numerous complaints by politicians at each election. Osaghea (1994) posited that â€Å"for there to be sustainability in the democratic process, the state and its operators should be credible in the eyes of the people†. Inefficient and corrupt electoral process breeds corrupt leaders. Oath of Secrecy Information experts has identified oath of secrecy as a major setback in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. This works by restricting the public from accessing certain information tagged â€Å"classified†. Subhash and Christine (2003) have it that â€Å"Until a few years ago, most countries still had strict national secrecy laws. These have been repealed in favor of the freedom of information laws in U. S and much of Europe†¦secrecy laws are still in effect in many of the developing countries†. Most of the corrupt practices witnessed in Nigeria were perpetrated under the cover of oath of secrecy. Slow Dispensation of Justice The Nigerian legal system is characterized by very sluggish and corrupt legal processes. Both citizens and non citizens most times prefer suffering injustice to seeking redress in the courts. A situation where litigation lingers for years does not favor the anti-corruption crusade. Lack of National Database Lack of functional national database that could contain information about the government, its departments, agencies and businesses has been identified as a factor that encourages corruption in Nigeria. It is in Nigeria that a person will commit a crime and get ousted in government services, only for that person to go to another level or agency of the same government and get recognition, appointment or business. Such encourages corruption. Inadequate ICT Training for Citizens Most citizens of Nigeria do not have sound IT knowledge. For such people, if they come in contact with fraud on the internet they may not be able to recognize it or may not know what next to do. Effects of Corruption in Nigeria The following are some of the effects of corruption in Nigeria. * Liquidation of state owned enterprises * Discouragement of foreign investors * High level of poverty * Lack of confidence in government by the people * Creation of bad image for Nigeria which the citizens suffer abroad. High cases of brain drain Benefits of E-government * E-government could enhance quick and accurate dispensation of government operations. * The nature of E-government makes it important that there is strong leadership and political commitment among different government ministries and agencies * It can lead to transparency provided the legal framework supports free access to information * E-government can be used as an entry point to ensure interaction among government departments. Implementation of e-government We will highlight the process of implementing e-government vis-a-viz the identified causes of corruption in Nigeria as stated above. In order to make government officials accountable, the federal government of Nigeria has prepared the platform with the establishment of Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crime Commission(EFCC), the Code of Conduct Bureau, and the recent Fiscal Responsibilities Commission(FRC). These commissions were created to supervise and control government spending. Creating the commissions alone is not enough to stop the corrupt practices perpetrated by officials of government in Nigeria; rather functional websites for these commissions should be developed and hosted. On these websites, all government transactions should be posted for public consumption, with little or no restrictions. This will enable any person anywhere in the world to have access to information about the execution of budget, public contracts, payment orders, financial and employment data of all staff and retirees of government. Also to be posted to the website are the regulations and guidelines that govern the provision of services, inventory of government assets, and liabilities and all information necessary for the control of socio-economic expenditures. For valid elections to take place in Nigeria, electronic voting system becomes imperative. Electronic voting system according to Iwu (2005) â€Å"is one of the general forms of automated methods, which employs computer technology devices to improve several aspects of the electoral process†. The electoral process includes registration of voters through announcement of results. Nigeria would have had near perfect election in 2007 if Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had allowed results to be returned electronically through the commission’s website which ought to have been made available and accessible to the public before the election. The automation of the legal process in Nigeria will help in no small measures to remove the obstacles that impede the legal process. Real-time report systems, where a stenograph machine is coupled to a computer system and the reports of Court proceedings generated with aid of a software (CASE CATAYST), could be a great asset to the judicial arm of the government. The beauty of this automated system is that it saves Court’s time where Judges write volumes. The software has the capacity of recording voices, such that it becomes impossible for one to deny facts during a trial in Courts. Since the reports can be relayed to any connected computer and to the internet, it will reduce corruption among the judicial officers. Designing a database for the government which can be viewed through the internet, will be of help. Database is a large amount of information held in a structured way so that it is easy to find what one wants as quickly as possible (Hall and Smith, 1991). This database can hold information about government officials, contractors, and business partners and linked to the internet so that at any point in time, information about any of these people can be accessed. Provision can be made for the update of information in the database. Whenever an official commits a crime, it will be recorded against him in the database table, likewise, when he makes a remarkable achievement in office. This will make the government officials to sit up and shun corruption. E-government cannot function properly without the citizens being e-compliant. Introducing ICT skills at all levels of education and organizing ICT training for all workers in Nigeria, can go a long way in making the citizens have sound knowledge of ICT which is the backbone of e-government. Challenges of e-government The application of e-government in the anti-corruption crusade does not go without challenges. Under listed are the possible challenges; * The cost of acquiring ICT and training of officials by government establishment is enormous. Overlapping functions and lack of cooperation among government departments in the area of exchanging information, use of common data, hardware or software. Selection of appropriate software and hardware can also pose a problem due to emergence of new technologies. * Due to large audience to the website, security of information may be at risk. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been used as a strategic tool for modernizing structures, processes and the overall functions of public administration. Many governments all over the world are posting crucial information on the internet thereby interacting electronically with their citizens. Nigeria government and people cannot afford to be left out in this electronic boom. Based on the findings and discussions, the following recommendations are made; * The federal government of Nigeria must be prepared to take the bull by the horn. She should show total commitment to the e-government project by providing adequate financial, human and legal support for the success of the project. * The federal government should embrace e-government without reservation and also direct her ministries, parastatals, and agencies to develop and maintain functional websites which should be made accessible through the internet. The oath of secrecy law should be abrogated and replaced by the freedom of information law.

Use the YPP World Bank Essay Sample to Boost Your Project Management Skills

Use the YPP World Bank Essay Sample to Boost Your Project Management SkillsThe YPP World Bank Essay Sample is an interactive workbook that lets you build a project based on your expertise, talents and experience. The four sections are your strategy, your resources, your tasks and your timeline.Strategy is the foundation for any project. This section includes key information about your overall project, specific details about the project and key goals and objectives of the project. In this section, you can explain why you need to implement the strategy and what exactly you expect from the strategy. The section contains data on specific projects or processes related to the strategy that will help you assess whether your project fits into the strategy and what project-related activities are needed to move it in the right direction.Resources is where you define the specific resources that you have available for the project. In this section, you list all the sources of funding you have. Th ese sources include internal ones like your personal bank account, your company or organization's private accounts and government grants. Also included in this section are non-internal resources such as grants from third parties, public funding and loans. By including these sources, you can indicate the sources of funding that are free and available to you.Tasks is where you lay out your project's timeline. The timeline contains steps, milestones and details on when the project will be completed. The timeline also contains all the steps for your team to do its jobs. Each task should be clearly outlined so that everyone knows what they need to do and how they should approach each task.The Timeline should not be exhaustive and there is no such thing as 'complete the timeline.' It is meant to provide a starting point for your project. It is where you can specify the process that must be completed by the end of the project. You can then break the timeline into smaller, more manageable c hunks and create the detailed schedule. Just like every other part of your project, these stages should be detailed and in order.A project timeline is not always sufficient. Sometimes it is best to break it down into more detailed segments. In this case, the outline would be your strategy followed by your resources. Tasks would be listed as projects get done and resources would be the ones that will be used. A detailed set of stages for each of the stages would help you plan your project correctly. And the timeline would serve as a guide to create your project.The YPP World Bank Essay Sample is one of the most useful tools available for helping you master project management skills. Use it to improve your project management skills, set up your timeline and develop your strategy. It makes sure that you follow-up on your tasks and make sure that your timeline is effective.

Jamestown Essays (601 words) - Colonial Virginia, James River

Jamestown In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish a English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. By December, 104 male settlers sailed from London instructed to settle Virginia, and find gold and a water route to the Orient. According to a list published by Captain John Smith, Gentlemen made up about half of the group, whose gentle birth suggests they knew nothing of or thought it their personal duty to tame a wilderness. The rest were artisans, artisans, and laborers. On May 13, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers chose to settle on Jamestown Island, along the James River 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. By one account, they landed there because the deep water channel let their ships ride close to shore; close enough, to tie them to the trees. Almost immediately the colonists were under attack from the Algonquian natives. In a little over a months' time, the newcomers managed to build a wooden fort. Three contemporary accounts and a sketch of the fort agree that its wooden palisade walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses. While disease, famine and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population, the eventual structured leadership of Captain John Smith kept the colony from dissolving. The starving time winter followed Smith's departure in 1609 during which only 60 of the original 500 settlers survived. That June, the survivors decided to bury cannon and armor and abandon the town. It was only the arrival of the new governor, Lord De La Ware, and his supply ships that brought the colonists back to the fort and the colony back on its feet. Then when Pocahontas, the favored daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, married tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe, some years of peace followed. The first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619. The other crucial event that would play a role in the development of America was the arrival of Africans to Jamestown. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became servants. The Algonquians eventually became unhappy again, and in 1622, attacked the out plantations killing over 300 of the settlers. Even though a last minute warning spared Jamestown, the attack on the colony and mismanagement of the Virginia Company at home convinced the King that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter. Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. The fort seems to have existed into the middle of the 1620s, but as Jamestown grew into a New Town to the East, written reference to the original fort disappear. Jamestown remained the capital of Virginia until its major statehouse, located on the western end of the APVA property, burned in 1698. The capital was moved to Williamsburg that year and Jamestown began to slowly disappear above ground. In 1893 Jamestown was owned by Mr. And Mrs. Edward Barney. The Barneys gave 22 ? acres of land, including the 1639 church tower, to the APVA. By this time James River erosion had eaten away the island's western shore; visitors began to conclude that the site of James Fort lay completely underwater. With federal assistance, a sea wall was constructed in 1900 to protect the area from further erosion. The remaining acreage on the island was acquired by the National Park Service in 1934 as part of the Colonial National Historical Park. Today, Jamestown is jointly operated by the APVA and NPS. History Reports

roger and me essays

roger and me essays Roger The struggle between GM and the workers they laid off in Flint, Michigan is quite evident. The higher ups in GM management, as in Roger Smith, president of General Motors, decided that GM was going to greatly downsize their workforce in order to save some money. Smith moved his factories to Mexico where he could pay the workers a much lower wage than he could in the United States. Some thirty thousand workers were laid off and eleven factories were shut down all together. In cities like Flint, Michigan where the whole community was based around the factory everyone suffered. Parts of Flint became ghost towns and families struggled to provide food and clothes for their children, the city was steadily falling apart and nothing could be done to bring back what was once a strong economy. As a result of the General Motors closing, thirty thousand people in Flint were forced into poverty. The city became infested with rats and the crime rate soared. In Roger and Me, a documentary by Michael Moore, he followed around Sheriffs Deputy Fred Ross, a former GM worker, who has the job of pounding on doors and enforcing eviction notices on families of Flint. He depicts how the closing of the GM factory cause so much suffering, just because some rich capitalists wanted to save some money. This shows how the closing of the factories directly effected the people of Flint. On the other hand while the poor got poorer, the rich kept their wealth and were shockingly insensitive to what was happening in their own backyard. Since the closing did not effect the wealthy, because they didnt work there, they were not worried about how they would put diner on the table every night. In Roger and Me, it showed how the rich thought nothing was wrong with Flint and that the public was overacting to the loss of thirty thousand plus jobs. This just shows the ignorance of some people in our society ...

Essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Essays - Essay Example e, the inventions in the scientific era yielded no fruits till later years in subsequent revolutions; however, some inventions owe more to the revolutions than the vice-versa. The invention of the steam engine owes more to science than what science the steam engine. The correlation and dependency of the revolutions explain that the French revolution could be termed as the greatest in world history. Today, democracy can be regarded as the most appreciated system of governance. Democracy traces its foundation to the French revolution. Monarchism, aristocracy, and religious privileges were overthrown and in their place came democracy, liberalism, secularism and declaration of human rights and freedom. Enlightened absolutism can be defined as a form of absolute monarchism surviving on the foundation of enlightenment ideas. The Russian empress, Catherine the Great, governed on the ideals of enlightenment philosophers by the names of Beccaria, Montesquieu, and de Gouges. She depicted the characters of a monarch by imprisoning many of her opponents, declined the principle of a social contract and facilitated religious tolerance by advocacy of the Russian Orthodox Church to tolerate outsiders (Foran 23). Enlightenment could be termed as the world major intellectual revolution. It spread across boundaries but never affected all. People affected were primarily under monarchies, and thus those aristocrats were free from the effects of enlightenment. The aftereffects of enlightenment were both negative and positive. The positive ones included, advances in literacy levels among the citizenry and promoted open mindedness in regard to intellectual matters. The people, however, fell into the trap of intellectual frauds. For instance, physiognomists claimed to be able to forecast psychological characteristics, people got themselves gullible to such quack fields of knowledge primarily based on superstition. Other major, effects of enlightenment include, the invention of that the

Evaluate the continuing professional development opportunities I have Essay

Evaluate the continuing professional development opportunities I have engaged in which have influenced my generic teaching skills - Essay Example Secondly, I wrote lesson plans which guided me not to change the duration of my activities, or foregoing them altogether; as well as schemes of work, which guided me on what to do in the course of the semester. Thirdly, I took part in an in-house training that gave me an opportunity to develop teaching skills, and emphasized the need to understand the principles of education. Lastly, theories of reflection made me build knowledge on bridging the gap between theory and practical world. Though development opportunities are a great way to grow professionally, evaluating development programs is crucial too. Collins (2000), states that evaluation can help in choosing the right program, adopting it to your local text and to fine-tune the program once in use. He continues to say that evaluation ensures that one avoids the popular innovations that are more opinion-based and promoted by people who are more concerned of what sells than what works. In view of the above discussion, though development is important, the process can be pricey because it requires sophisticated methods of evaluation to ensure quality