Understanding performance appraisal fairness

Employee reactions to the performance appraisal (PA) process have been identified as a potentially important influence on employee acceptance of the performance appraisal process. One such reaction is the perceived fairness of the performance appraisal experience. Previous studies have tended to focus on single aspects of the PA process that impact on PA fairness. In this paper we combine findings from previous research on PA fairness into a single model and then investigate their impact using data from 2377 public sector employees. We find that participation in PA, attitudes towards the supervisor and knowledge of the performance appraisal process are all positively and significantly associated with employee perceptions of performance appraisal fairness.