Performance appraisal system in China: an overview and critique

Abstract

The assessment of an employee’s job performance within an organization is often considered as a taken for granted activity, but it plays an important role in the attainment of the competitive advantage and in the improvement of the organizational system, as the employee is not only a mere object within the organization but he is also an important key factor of the company’s well-being. The thesis wants to define what performance appraisal is, as well as explaining the performance management as its consequence, its literal meaning, the measurements and the application; which are the major relative risks and how they can be overcome; which are the most effective methods for improving performance and work attitude. Furthermore it aims at analyzing the evaluation methods of employee performance, as alternative means of traditional methods. The point the thesis wants to highlight is a comparison among cultures, the Western performance appraisal methods and the Chinese ones, and how the Chinese culture impact influenced the PA methods. Chinese values are changing with a generation of more liberalized communists, but the 2500 year-old Confucian fundamentals continue to run deep in their veins. What does it mean in performance management? Exemplifications are provided by interviews made by the author of this thesis to HR managers who actually work in China, analyzing the real situation of appraisal system in Chinese companies.