| dc.description.abstract | For about a decade and a half, the Government of Kenya put in place measures that included
adoption of rapid results initiative and performance contracting aimed at improving
efficiency in service delivery. Despite the efforts by the government, the public sector still
face the challenge of poor service delivery and declining employee performance as captured
by Government of Kenya, Ministry of Public Service and Transparency International reports.
Most studies on performance appraisal and employee performance established a significant
relationship between performance appraisal and employee performance. The studies focused
on performance goals, planning, monitoring and feedback, communication, rating standards,
training and development, reward system, appraisal process, and employees' perceptions.
However, the studies did not determine whether consistency, accuracy and fairness of
performance appraisal had influence on employees' performance. The purpose of the study
was to determine the influence of performance appraisal on employee performance in public
service in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to examine: influence of consistency of
performance appraisal on employee performance, influence of accuracy of performance
appraisal on employee performance and influence of fairness in performance appraisal on
employee performance. The study was anchored on goal setting theory and control theory.
Correlational research design was adopted. The population comprised of 250 Public Service
officers from the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government of Kenya
within Kisumu County. Stratified, simple random sampling was used to pick a sample of 154
respondents. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data
for the study came from questionnaires, while secondary data were gathered through official
government documents obtained from government offices, library research and internet
search. Validity of the instruments was ascertained through expert opinion and revision.
Reliability ranged between 0.75 and 0.83 Cronbach's Alpha implying that all items in the
questionnaire were reliable. Descriptive statistics represented mean scores and standard
deviation while regression analysis evaluated relationships between the independent and
dependent variables. The finding revealed that 87.9% variation in employee performance
accounted for by the combined performance appraisal attributes (R2 = 0.87, p=.OOO). The
study further established consistency of performance appraisal had a positive contribution on
employee performance (~=.120, p=.031), accuracy of performance appraisal had a positive
and significant contribution to employee performance (p=.203, p=.OOl) while fairness of
performance appraisal had a unique positive and significant contribution to employee
performance (~=.683, p=.OOO).The study concluded that, consistency, accuracy and fairness
of performance appraisal were all critical antecedents of employee performance. The study
therefore recommended to the policy makers in Public Service to ensure that performance
appraisal were consistent, accurate and fair since the variables had significant contribution to
employee performance. The findings of the study may enable policy makers in the Public
Service to come up with measures that would ensure the performance appraisal was
consistent, accurate and fair in order to improve employee performance. | en_US |
