Employees' Appraisal as an Indicator of the Quality of Human Resources Management in Organizations in Slovakia

Vol. 7 (2) 2010: pp. 79-90

Original scientific paper UDC 331.101.39(437.6) ; 005.95/.96

Ing. Jana Blštáková*

Department for Management, University of Economics in Bratislava

EMPLOYEES' APPRAISAL AS AN

INDICATOR OF THE QUALITY

OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

IN ORGANIZATIONS IN SLOVAKIA

Abstract: The paper is based on research results from our survey performed periodically,

focused on HRM functions in organizations. The paper is based on the latest

data collected on a sample of 225 companies, in 2008. The aim of the paper is focused

on employees' appraisal and to provide the reader with brief review of HRM in Slovak

organizations. We believe that employees' appraisal system may be considered one of the

indicators of the quality of HRM in an organization. Properly designed and realized process

of employees' appraisal is not only the necessary basis for successful employee performance

management, but also provides valuable information for other Human Resources

Management functions. The findings and conclusions published in this paper are based on

our continuous research focused on HRM functions in Slovak companies. HRM functions,

including the system of employees' appraisal, is being monitored since 1998. Later on we

have entered the Cranfield Network, thus we are capable of an international comparison.

Key words: employee appraisal, performance, Human Resources Management

(HRM), research findings, Slovak Republic

JEL classification: J24, L20

1. Why do we understand employees' appraisal crucial when measuring

the quality of HRM in an organization?

Performing employees' appraisal places great demand on input information.

To gather information for employees' appraisal is quite a difficult task. It not

only requires employees' cooperation, involvement of line managers, and properly

trained HR generalists, adequate methodology and good timing, but above

all mature corporate culture. The key to an effective and beneficial employees'

appraisal system is in systematic approach. We consider the application of

systematic approach to HRM crucial for successful fulfillment of its mission

* E-mail: j.blstak@euba.sk

Jana Blštáková

Megatrend Review

80

within a company. Therefore we believe we may consider focusing on employees'

appraisal reasonable indicator of HRM quality in a company.

The paper is therefore focusing on the issue of well designed and applied

employees' appraisal system as offered by theory and afterwards provides the

reader with the practical point of view emphasizing the relativities among other

HRM functions. Since it is based on the latest research results, the paper contains

brief view into actual situation in HRM in Slovak companies.

2. Why do we consider the issue of appraising employees

in a company so important?

One of the essential aims of Human Resources Management (HRM) is taking

part in reaching companies objectives by managing its personnel. This means

to obtain and keep quality, professionally capable, responsible and loyal workforce,

and meanwhile to create a system of managing human resources in a company,

where individual