Performance appraisal
Essay method
Comparative evaluation
Rating
Forced distribution method
Forced choice method
Graphic rating scale method
Field review method
Checklist
Confidential report
Critical incident method
Management by objectives (MBO)
Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)
Cost accounting method
360-degree appraisal
Essay method
It is a traditional and judgmental approach under which employee is evaluated and a descriptive essay is written on him/her. The essay describes in detail about the strengths, weaknesses, potential, nature, etc.
Essay method helps in collecting a lot of information about the employees as the evaluators are not confined to appraise the employees in rigidly defined criteria. The process is unrestricted and flexible, permitting the employers to emphasize on any issues or traits that they feel relevant.
However, this method is tedious and difficult to manage as it demands more description than other methods of appraisal. The reports being descriptive in nature, it is difficult to compare and contrast them or withdraw any conclusion. Besides, the evaluator must have good writing skills, or else the whole process is distorted.
Comparative evaluation
Comparative evaluation is a technique of appraising employees by comparing and contrasting issues and traits of an employee with another. There are basically two ways to conduct comparative evaluation; they are:
Paired comparison
Under this method, the pairs of employees of same job post or level are formed, following which they are evaluated on the basis of performance of each other. Subjects like skills, experience, team player, behavior, etc. are evaluated by the raters and picks the best performing employee.To be precise, the raters are provided with a bunch of slips, each containing a pair of names of employees. The employee whom raters consider to be the best is given a tick mark and the process is repeated for all pairs. At the end, the employee who succeeds to get the most tick is considered to be the best while the employee getting least ticks is comparatively considered poor.
Paired comparison is a good method for evaluating employee performance. However, it becomes very difficult for companies with large number of employees to form pairs as the pairs are formed by applying the formula:
N (N-1) ÷ 2, where N = No. of employees
For an example, if there are four employees, the number of pairs formed will be six.
Ranking
Ranking is one of the simplest methods of performance appraisal. Under this method, employees are ranked from the best to the worst according to their performance level.The best performing employees are ranked #1 and the least performing one is ranked the last. Based on these rankings, the companies may take any actions, from promotion to termination. Although ranking method of performance appraisal is considered to be an easier approach, it becomes problematic and full of issues when conducted in a large scale. Also, this method of performance appraisal is criticized because it is unsystematic and results are often drawn on the basis of snap judgment.
Rating
Rating is a commonly used traditional method of performance appraisal. Under this approach, an employee is numerically rated from 1 to 10 on various job performance criterions like attendance, attitude, performance, output, sincerity, dependability, initiative, etc.The employee may be rated by his/her superiors, colleagues or even customers, depending upon the nature of job. Scores of all criterions are finally calculated, and results are withdrawn.
Rating method of performance appraisal is commonly used because it is economic in nature and raters do not require to have high skills to use it. Also, it is applicable in almost all types of job and even with large workforce.
Forced distribution method
Employers or raters are found to have tendency to rate their employees near average or above average performing categories. In around late 90s, Tiffen introduced a new method of performance appraisal call forced distribution, in an attempt to eliminate the flaws of the raters. Under this method, raters are forced to divide his employees evenly into certain categories which vary from organization to organization. The categories can be poor, average, good and excellent or percentile based like 10% poor, 40% fairly good, 40% good and 10% excellent. This method is widely applied and has been considered effective in service-driven companies. However, the method also has some drawbacks. They are: It creates false competition between employees. All employees might not fit neatly into a category, leading to their placement in such a category that does not reflect their true image.
Raters may end up placing more visible employees in superior categories and less visible ones in poor category, irrespective of their job performance.
Forced choice method
Forced choice method of performance appraisal was introduced by J.P. Guilford. It is one of the most systematic and reliable approach to evaluate employees accurately. Under this approach, the HR manager, at first, prepares a set of positive as well as negative statements. The statements are then forwarded to the rater, following which the rater indicates which of the given statements suits the employee. Once the rater finishes evaluating all employees, the report is sent to the HR manager for final assessment. Some examples of positive and negative statements are Positive statements
Communicates well with superiors. Plays active role in meetings and other office events. Negative statements Consistently over-promises and under-delivers.Isn’t punctual, often comes late to the office.Each of such statements, both positive as well as negative, carries certain score set by the HR manager, which is not even revealed to the rater. It makes the process more objective. The scores are at last summed up and conclusion is withdrawn. The employees with high scores are ranked at the top while least scoring employees are ranked at the bottom.Some critics have, however, noted that this method is time consuming and it is very challenging to construct pertinent evaluative statements.
Graphic rating scale method
Graphic rating scale is one of the oldest and commonly used methods of performance appraisal. Under this approach, the employees are evaluated on the basis of various job performance criterions, such that each criterion is categorically divided into poor, fairly poor, fairly good, good and excellent. Also, these criterions carry certain score weight. The rater ticks the category that best describes the employee and finally the score is totaled.
Field review method
Field review method of performance appraisal is conducted by the rater who does not belong to the employees’ department. The rater is someone from the corporate, especially from HR department.Use of this technique to evaluate employees’ performance is helpful in completely eliminating issues that arise due to rater’s biasedness. However, this method is not widely used because of the drawbacks. They are The rater is not familiar with employees, making it impossible for him to observe their actual behavior.The rater might feel aggrieved in cases when employees try to clarify any matter.
Checklist
Checklist method is another of the easiest methods of appraising employee’s performance. Under this method, a checklist is prepared by the HR manager and is forwarded to the rater. The checklist may include list of questions (depicting behavior and job performance of employee) and the rater has to answer them in just ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ form.
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
In the period we live in, called as Anthropological era by some researchers (Crutzen, 2003; Steffen et al., 2007), many environmental problems such as air pollution, depletion of potable water resources, loss of biodiversity, and notably, climate changes have occurred (Gautier, 2014;
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2013; Sonnenfeld & Mol, 2002; World Wide Fund for Nature, 2018). Environmental pressure started with the establishment of agricultural societies by human beings, reached high levels in the industrial era and has continued to increase today. Despite the ability of the environment to sustain itself, human behaviours disrupt the natural environment and become a threat to environmental sustainability. Besides major factors such as population growth, depletion of resources and pollution, daily behaviours such as smoking, inefficient recycling habits, unfriendly attitudes towards the environment are increasing factors leading to the destruction of the natural resources.
Environmental pollution and Climate change has led to the rapid deterioration of various ecosystems with far reaching consequences for the living organisms residing within them. The repercussions of pollution and climate change on biological organisms, as well as on particularly susceptible communities, are an important source of global scientific concern. Our current generation has changed the ecosystem faster and more exhaustively than any other generation before, therefore, a significant part of the environmental problems experienced today is human-induced (Çoban, 2014; Williams & Cary, 2002). The solution is based on people’s awareness regarding the root of the problem (Rickinson, 2001) and behavioural change for a sustainable future.
Environmental education is the best way to raise awareness of people about the environment. It is the process of learning necessary information about the environment, forming positive attitudes toward the environment, developing the right behaviours, and creating conscious societies that act with lifelong awareness in every point of life (Erol & Gezer, 2006; Gülersoy et al., 2020). Well-planned environmental education that includes practical activities plays an important role in providing individuals with exemplary behaviours toward the environment.
Environmental Psychology
Environmental psychology emerged as a subdiscipline of psychological science. This field defines the term environment broadly, encompassing natural environments, social settings, built environments, learning environments, and informational environments. It is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the interplay between individuals and their surroundings.
It covers all aspects of human behaviour and mental life in relation to the biophysical environment, whether considered as ambient environmental factors (e.g., noise, temperature, lighting), specific behaviour settings (e.g., schools, offices, hospitals), the basic infrastructure of everyday life (e.g., energy and transportation systems), or in a broader sense, with regard to landscape and the relationship between built and natural aspects of human environments. Human behaviour and mental life include, but are not limited to, perception and cognition, emotion, stress and mental fatigue, decision making, and social interactions, as manifest in covert and overt behaviour. In short, environmental psychology is concerned with the facts of bi-directional influence in people-environment interactions; it considers how the socio physical environment influences people and how people influence the environment (Gärling, 2014).
Environmental psychology was not fully recognized as its own field until the late 1960s when scientists began to question the tie between human behaviour and our natural and built environments. Since its conception, the field has been committed to the development of a discipline that is both value oriented and problem oriented, prioritising research aimed at solving complex environmental problems in the pursuit of individual well-being within a larger society (Proshansky 1987). When solving problems involving human-environment interactions, whether global or local, one must have a model of human nature that predicts the environmental conditions under which humans will respond well. This model can help design, manage, protect and/or restore environments that enhance reasonable behaviour, predict the likely outcomes when these conditions are not met, and diagnose problem situations. This field develops such a model of human nature while retaining a broad and inherently multidisciplinary focus.
The importance of environmental factors in psychiatric research is gaining increased attention due to the various detrimental effects unfavourable environmental conditions may give rise to. They may be the genesis of various neurological and psychological disorders and induce congenital defects and cause impairments in neurodevelopment as well as leading to the manifestation of a number of psychophysical symptoms. Climate change has been predicted to affect both community-wellbeing and physical health which would have associated ramifications on mental health as well (Berry et al., 2010).
In the existing literature, climate change is found to have three types of psychological effects. Firstly, an increase in natural calamities and extreme fluctuations in weather conditions precipitated by climate change has been found to take a toll on mental wellness. Secondly, vulnerable communities and places, especially those in low – income countries, would be adversely impacted by climate change as found by Berry et al., (2010). This may be due to their reduced accessibility to the resources that promote mental health and wellbeing.
Lastly, the emerging phenomenon of ‘eco anxiety’ is also being triggered by climate change. Eco anxiety is closely associated with fear and worry (Panu, 2020). It causes emotional distress and feelings of apprehension about the future and may leave individuals experiencing a myriad of other negative feelings such as sadness, helplessness, frustration or anger.
Knowing environmental issues enables individuals to predict the results of their activities. For example, an individual who knows ecological relationships in nature can predict what kind of impact the other related species, and perhaps the entire ecosystem, could face if any species becomes extinct and can, therefore, shape their behaviour accordingly. However, many studies emphasise that positive feelings and attitudes are more important than providing information to individuals in environmental education. Pooley and O'Connor (2000) and Iozzi (1989) have stated that environmental attitudes are directly related to behaviours and knowledge lags behind them. For this reason, the concept of attitude toward the environment becomes important as one of the determining factors of behaviour.
Attitude
Attitudes that are formed as a result of individuals’ perceptions and prepares the ground for their behaviours (Akande, 2009; Kağıtçıbaşı, 2010) are the positive and negative emotions that are organised based on any subject, concept, object, phenomenon or event, motivation and information related to that subject (Güney, 2000; Kağıtçıbaşı, 2010; Tezbaşaran, 1996). Ajzen and Fishbein (1977) state that attitudes consist of four elements: action, goal-oriented action, action-oriented content, and time.
Throughout the history of psychology, the notion of attitude has played an essential role
in the explanation of behaviour. Attitude research has been popular beginning in the
1900s. One of the main reasons for this, as described by Wicker (1969), is that theorists
have believed and have seen a real connection between attitudes and behaviour. Gordon
Allport (1935), an early pioneer in attitude research, characterised the concept of attitude
as distinctive and indispensable to social psychology.
The word ‘attitude’, stems from the Latin word “Aptus” it has on one hand the
significance of ‘fitness’ or connotes a subjective or mental state of ‘preparation for
action’. The term ‘attitude’ was introduced in social psychology as an explanatory device
in an attempt to understand human behaviour." (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, p.336).
The word attitude has been defined in various ways by different scientists. Allport (1935), defined attitude as “a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon an individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related". Krech, D., & Crutchfield, R. S. (1948), defined attitude as, “an enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual's world”. Thurstone and Chave (1929) define attitude as, "The sum total of man's inclinations and feelings, prejudices or biases, preconceived notions, ideas, fears, threats and convictions about any specific topic. A.L. Edwards (1969) defines attitude as "the degree of positive or negative effect associated with some psychological object."
Attitudes possess certain characteristics: valence (degree of positive or negative feeling about an attitude object that predicts what attitude scales normally measure), centrality (the extent to which an attitude is a part of a person's self-concept and reflects the individual’s identity), interrelatedness (the extent to which an attitude is related to a person's other attitudes), stability (an attitude’s resistance to change) and salience (a person's conscious awareness of the attitude).
An attitude is a latent construct mentally attached to a concrete or abstract object (otherwise known as an “attitude object” - a person, place, entity, or idea). Attitudes have been said to be made up of three components: cognitive (consisting of the person's thought process, perceptions and beliefs, and evaluations about the attitude object), conative (consisting the behavioural intentions and actions regarding the attitudinal object) and affective (provides an emotional or feeling aspect to the attitude which results in an object being liked or disliked). (Breckler, 1984).
Attitudes are often confused with other constructs, such as values, beliefs, opinions, personality dispositions, personal norms and behaviour. Although all these components relate to the three attitude components to some extent, they also differ in subtle but important ways.
Values are the moral principles or moral ethics or culturally bound standards of behaviour. On the other hand, attitudes are the opinions or stances about a certain subject matter or a person.
A belief is defined as an enduring organisation of perceptions and cognitions about some
aspects of the individual's world. Whereas, attitude refers to a person's favourable or unfavourable evaluation of an object, beliefs represent the information a person has about the said object. Behaviour is the dynamic resultant of motivational, emotional, perceptual and learning processes operating simultaneously. While attitude involves the mind's predisposition to certain ideas, values, people, systems, institutions; behaviour relates to the actual expression of feelings, action or inaction orally or/and through body language. Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. Personality traits differ from attitudes in that, like values, they are not focused on a particular object, are not necessarily evaluative and are not easily changeable (Ajzen, 2005).
Erten (2005) defines environmental attitude as "individuals' emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger caused by environmental problems, their value judgments about the environment, and their attitudes and thoughts that can be positive or negative, such as taking part in solving environmental problems." In this regard, attitudes toward the environment directly affect the perspectives and preferences of individuals regarding environmental events. Environmental attitudes can also be defined as concern for the environment or caring about environmental issues (sometimes referred to as pro-environmental attitudes). Pro – environmental attitudes has been defined by Giffords & Sussman (2012) as the consideration and concern displayed by an individual towards the natural environment and involves them caring about issues plaguing the environment.
