10.3. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Performance appraisal needs to be linked to the managerial activities and the management system. Cunningham (1979, p. 657) has categorized the management system into two distinct areas: The process of management includes activities such as planning, organizing, controlling, budgeting, and staffing, and the key orientation of these processes focuses on integrating (work activities), making decisions, recording information, motivating, and negotiating. The function of management includes procurement, production, adaptation, and so on. The orientations of these functions are adaptability, productivity, efficiency, and bargaining.

The managerial processes are concerned with the administration of inputs, while the managerial function deals with the way inputs produce outputs (production) that are important and relevant to the organization. Managerial processes respond to day-to-day problems, and primarily involve problem solving. The managerial functions, on the other hand, are concerned with prescribing specific operations, procedures, and standards for achieving a certain level of production or output.

Four major activities have been identified under managerial function: adaptability, productivity, efficiency, and bargaining. Twenty-one elements were listed under the managerial process. They included items such as integration, information recording, decision making, and motivation. In evaluating managerial performance, the manager's effectiveness in accomplishing the specific process and function elements just mentioned can be considered.