Recently, the interest and importance of legal issues in performance appraisal (PA) has grown (Malos, 1998; Werner & Bolino, 1997). A properly designed and implemented legal performance appraisal is valuable when an employer wants to motivate employees and increase their job performance so that both organizations and employees can benefit from it. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission's (EEOC) regulations require that any measurement, including PA, used to evaluate employees, must be fairly administered to be valid (the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 1978). These measurement instruments must be clearly and timely communicated and should reflect specific job behaviors (Malos, 1998; Werner & Bolino, 1997). These are just top of the iceberg to determine that PA conducted in the organization are not only effective for administrative and developmental decisions but they are legally defensible. This paper considers some recommendations the organization should follow to ensure fairness and accuracy of the PA process and compliance with the USA regulations.
Recommendations to Implement.
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The legal viability of PA process depends on the facts and circumstances of each particular case (Malos, 1998). The law most greatly influencing the PA systems practice relates to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically Title VII of the act (Malos, 1998). Title VII was initially oriented toward discrimination cases in employment selection, but the evolution in case law broadened interpretation of the Act now to PA process. .
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The appraisal system of an organization can improve the overall employees' performance, help them develop and motivate, provided it promotes perception of fairness (Gilliland & Langdon, 1998). Perception of fairness consists of the outcome fairness (evaluation of the received outcomes), procedural fairness (procedures applied to define those outcomes), and interpersonal fairness (the implementation and explanation of the decisions made) (Gilliland & Langdon, 1998).