Essay Evaluation
Under this method, the rater is asked to express the powerful as well as weak points of the worker's behaviour. This technique is generally used with a combination of the graphic rating scale because the rater may elaborately present the scale by substantiating an explanation for his rating. When preparing the essay on the worker, the rater considers the factors which are following:
(i) Job knowledge & potential of the worker;
(ii) worker's understanding of the company's programmes, objectives, policies etc.;
(iii) The worker's relations with co-workers & superiors;
(iv) The employee's, organising , general planning and controlling ability;
(v) The perceptions and attitudes of the employee, generally. Essay evaluation is a non-quantitative method. This method is beneficial in at least one sense, for example: the essay provides a fine deal of information regarding the workers and also reveals more regarding the evaluator. However ,The essay evaluation method suffers from the following boundaries:
- It is subjective highly; the supervisor can write a biased essay. The worker who is sycophants shall be evaluated more favourably than other worker.
- Some evaluators can be poor in writing essays on worker performance. Others can be superficial in explanation and utilize flowery language which can not reflect the real performance of the worker. It is very hard to find effective writers today.
- The appraiser is required to discover time to prepare the essay. A busy appraiser can write the essay hurriedly without correctly assessing the real performance of the worker. Alternatively, appraiser takes a long time; it becomes uneconomical from the view point of the firm, because of the time of the evaluator (supervisor) is expensive.