Case Analysis: Appraisal Apprehensions

Overview:
Readymaid foods is a successful home-grown company which dealt with manufacturing of
jams, ketchups and canned food. While canned food technology was still in its initial stages,
Readymaid foods set up shop in the country and faced many problems as the technology was
expensive and also it took the people a while to accept it. Its main competitors were Special
Foods and Homemaker Products and some small set ups which were almost unorganized.
Sanjana Singh, who was appointed as the new Vice-President (HRD) has to work up on the
performance appraisal system at Readymaid within 4 weeks and she looked upon the
company’s past experiments with various experiments in appraisal systems.
Readymade food's former HRD Vice President Mr. Purohit served the company for 25 years
during which time he tried to implement the company's varied appraisal systems.He
undertook a new system of performance appraisal called Managerial Review and after some
time at Harvard University, he implemented a new tool,360-degree appraisal, which basically
involves subordinates evaluating and giving feedback of their bosses anonymously. While
some managers found this as a bad idea, many managers were benefitted from this and were
able to change their management systems and work on improving their units. Sanjana Singh,
as the new Vice President of HRD, personally thinks that a hierarchy should be necessary in
any organization and that communication and accountability should exist and she wanted to
make some fresh changes which can give her own identity and be able to differentiate from
her predecessor.
Problem Statement:
Sanjana Singh has to decide whether changes are to be made in the appraisal system or
implement a balanced new appraisal system considering the risk of not disturbing any system
of procedures the company has set before her.
Criteria:
The main criteria to be followed are that to ensure transparency in the performance appraisal
and make sure any friction won’t arise between managers and subordinates.
Alternatives:
1.As the problem with 360-degree system was anonymity, Sanjana can make it mandatory
that the subordinates use their names and give only genuine feedbacks. This way managers
can make any changes and have a meeting with his/her subordinates and bring about required
changes in their team.
2. Sanjana can combine the 360-degree system with the MBO system. This way, both
managers and subordinates both can work towards their goals and make decisions together
without any bias and this also increases the performance. And the main thing is that by
ensuring there is no communication gap between the managers and subordinates, it will
certainly improve the organizational relations.
3. The first appraisal system was about achieving certain goals which were relatively easy.
This system can be modified such that high goals are set up for both managers and
subordinates and keep pushing the standard every time the goals are met to increase the
performance even better.
Evaluation of Alternatives:
The problem with first alternative is that many subordinates would not be willing to lose their
anonymity in submitting their feedbacks. If they were told to use their names, the whole idea
of getting genuine feedbacks is lost. With the second alternative, however some managers
won’t be as much happy with discussing everything with their subordinates. In case of the
third alternative, setting up high goals and pushing the team sounds good but it won’t work in
the long run. Some may perform extraordinarily while others may lag. And this takes some
time for everyone to adjust.
Chosen Alternative & Implementation:
Considering all the alternatives, a mix of alternative 2 and 3 seem feasible. Certain goals are
set up as standard and there will be inter personal communication between the managers and
subordinates. The managers can get feedback from the subordinates and the subordinates can
hone their skills and strive to improve their position getting inputs from their managers. The
organization as a whole can get benefitted.