ABSTRACT
The problem of performance
evaluation is a hydra-headed monster that affects business growth because of
non-existence of evaluation process in many organizations. In organizations with
an evaluation process in place, performance evaluation is not properly automated;
they are usually inconclusive and incomplete due to biased, partial and
inadequate handling of performance metrics. In order to achieve the goal of
objectivity, credibility and trust in staff appraisal, a system that achieves unbiased,
comprehensive and self-information gathering should be provided. This study,
therefore, focused on developing an Agent-Based Performance Evaluation System towards
addressing these deficiencies.
In developing the proposed system,
the spiral model of the Software Development Life Cycle was adopted. The
metrics that were used by the system to evaluate performance included
attendance, staff’s responsiveness, punctuality and projects. The programming
environment used for the development include Netbeans IDE, Hypertext Mark-up
Language, MySQL, MySQL DB connector, Apache and PHPmyAdmin. The system/application
was evaluated in a social context at T&K printing solutions, Lagos. The
company via the Human Resource Manager utilized, tested and evaluated the
system on four (4) employees. The evaluation was based on the system’s efficiency
and user friendliness/usability.
A model of agent-based performance
evaluation system for managing staff-work information and auto-Scoring based on
organization’s predefined uniform company-wide appraisal score-weights was
developed. An agent-based performance evaluation application was created as an
instantiation of the model. The evaluation of the system revealed the manager’s
appreciation for the system because employees were glad to have their strengths
and weaknesses revealed to them as regards execution of particular projects.
In conclusion, the research found
that a proper appraisal of employees can serve as a motivating factor encouraging
commitment towards the growth of any organization. It is, therefore,
recommended that prompt and unbiased performance appraisal system be deployed
by organizations.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objective of the Study
1.4 Methodology
1.5 Scope of the Study
1.6 Significance of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Overview of Performance Appraisal
2.2 Uses of Appraisal Systems
2.3 Types of Appraisal
2.4 Performance
Appraisal Objectives
2.5
Elements of Performance Appraisal
2.6 Most Serious Performance Appraisal Problems
2.7
Different Techniques of Performance Appraisal
2.8 Software Agents
2.9 Review of Existing Related
Performance Evaluation Systems
2.10 Performance
Appraisal Models
2.11 Summary
CHAPTER
THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
3.1
Proposed System
3.2
Adopted Software Development Model
3.3 Entity Relational Diagram of the
System
3.4 Use Case Diagrams
3.5 Development tools
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS,
RESULTS
AND DISCUSSION
OF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction
4.1 System implementation
4.2 Architecture of the Proposed System
4.2.1 Description of the
component of the proposed system
4.3 Activity
flow diagram
4.4 System
testing
4.5 Application Graphical Interfaces
4.6
Application Platform
4.6.1 Software Requirement
4.6.1.1 The User Software Requirements
4.6.1.2 Hardware Requirement
4.7 System Evaluation
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Contribution
to Knowledge
5.5 Suggestion
for Further Studies
References
Appendix
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Largely, the need for evaluation
is to reward high performing employees, recognize areas for improvement of
staff as well as organizations, and provide recommendation in case of un-reconcilable
negligence of staff (Shamsuzzoha, 2013). Though these reasons should make
any organization want to adopt evaluation system, most organizations that
perform evaluations disrupt the system with too many human interpretations or
bias. Others run away from implementing these performance systems due to cost. Performance evaluations are
usually not as effective as they should be because some organization’s performance
process lack credibility; no clarity in the aspect of job being evaluated, no
standards against which performance is measured (Cintron, 2011). Performance
Evaluation is bias, manual, vague and incomplete in most Organizations
(Daoanis, 2012). Most Organizations do not have intelligent systems to appraise
their staff thereby adopting manual process which injects subjectivity into
staff appraisal (Kateřina, 2013). A recent investigation of major
U.S organizations revealed that 40% of managers admitted to forging or
controlling performance data because it was clear to them that the evaluation
served no valuable purpose in the way it was managed in their Organization
(Gordon, 2016).
Appraisal
system should track targets, accomplishments and projects of each employee,
otherwise, a staff is appraised based on human judgments and traits. Employee
is then evaluated by finding a score that best characterizes his or her level
of performance for every quality rather than the competence and accomplishment
of tasks. A need for automation of the process is indicated. Employee
performance is essentially identified with employment obligations, which are expected
from a worker, and how well those obligations were accomplished. Managers
assess their employees' performance on a yearly or quarterly basis, keeping in
mind the end goal, to help them recognize and recommend areas for improvement
(Shaout et al., 2014). The cogent components
of an effective appraisal and performance system should include regular feedbacks
aimed at providing employees with feedbacks expounding employee’s strengths and
improvement areas, to deduce appropriate support plans and to help in decision
making on issues such as compensations and recommendations (Chris, 2011). Thus, performance evaluation (PE) is key in enhancing
the quality of work input, in inspiring staff and making them more engaged. PE
additionally introduces a foundation for increment
in monthly remuneration and guides an organization in the development of its
employee succession and promotion plans (Shaout et al., 2014).
Several
appraisal methods, such as graphic rating scale method, forced choice
distribution method, behavioural check list method and so on, were used for
employee performance appraisal. New methods like Management by Objectives (MBO)
and assessment centres have been suggested (Shaout et al., 2014). The need for an efficient performance evaluation
system cannot be overemphasized. Review of existing performance evaluation
frameworks and systems revealed subjectivity concerns as performance scoring
still remains based on human judgement. Impraise
(Daoanis, 2012), talentpeak (Cintron, 2011), Performly (Lawler, 2012), PeopleGoal
(Katerina, 2013), Namely (Boachie-Mensah, 2012), Tessello (Bretz, 1992), and Fego
(Kondrasuk, 2011), ClearCompany (Mayhew, 2016), BambooHR (Capterra, 2015) among
others, computer-based applications designed to handle employee appraisals are
still subject to human biases because the employer/manager have to play some
roles in the appraisal process; giving the score, checking the feedback report,
sending the feedback report to be sent to the employee, and so on. The need to
rid biasness and quit robbing employees of their promotion calls for an
intelligent based performance evaluation system.
1.2 Statement of
the Problem
The problem of performance
evaluation is a hydra-headed monster which includes non-existence of the
process in many organizations.
Organizations that put checks and balances into their operations are
few. Those who do, spend hours of valuable man-power trying to manually arrive
at the staff performance evaluation. When these are done, various data are
exposed to personal bias. At other times the performance evaluation are
inconclusive and incomplete as there is no clarity of performance metrics. In
order to achieve the goal of objectivity, credibility and trust in staff
appraisal, a system that achieves unbiased, comprehensive and self-information
gathering should be provided.
Computer-based performance
evaluation systems in literature have been limited by lack of sufficient automation
and lack of consideration of some
relevant evaluation metrics. The search for ideal performance evaluation system
remains elusive making it a viable research area.
There is,
therefore, the need for a computer-based performance evaluation system that
will be staff-centric, task-centric and environment-centric, which this study
will focus upon.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The main objective
of this study is to develop an agent-based Perfomance evaluation model.
The specific objectives are to:
1.
propose
a model of agent-based performance evaluation system for managing staff-work information
and auto-scoring based on organization’s predefined uniform company-wide
appraisal score-weights;
2.
develop
a prototype of the proposed model, and
3.
evaluate
the prototype.
1.4
Methodology
The
tasks undertaken in order to accomplish this research are as follows:
i.
Extensive literature
review on the subject matter was carried out.
ii.
A model for
agent-based performance evaluation system for managing staff-work information
and auto-Scoring, based on organization’s predefined uniform company-wide
appraisal score-weights was developed.
iii.
An application, based on
the proposed model, was developed to instantiate the model following the Spiral
Software Development Life Cycle. The metrics that were used by the system to
evaluate performance include attendance, staff’s responsiveness, punctuality
and projects. Netbeans IDE, Hypertext Markup language (HTML), MySQL, MySQL DB
connector, Apache and PHPmyAdmin constitute the programming environment.
iv.
The application was
evaluated using an organization as a Case-Study.
1.5 Scope of
the Study
The proposed system only targets employee appraisal and does
not extend to other areas of the employee career that are not directly linked
to the employees’ performance evaluation. The variables that were of interest
in the study, therefore, are those that clearly define the employee in terms of
performance.
1.6 Significance
of the Study
As the world
innovates in technology, computing assumes everywhere and anywhere paradigm,
enabling improved service delivery, and supporting seamless productivity. With
new organizations joining the ecosystem of products and services management, it
is imperative and highly significant to automate staff performance using
unbiased and complete model. Such performance approach must put flexibility in
centre stage, thereby allowing organizations achieve transparent performance
rating for members of staff.
The proposed
approach would enable automated appraisal scores for every staff. A manager or
project team head can provide weight values to agreed appraisal metrics.
Management can detect staff’s attitude to work automatically through
intelligent approaches such as Staff-Computer Inactivity Time and Staff-Email
response time, among others. An appraisal administrator can view non-editable
appraisal scores at will. The system also allows management provide informed
judgements and decisions based on the appraisal outputs.
This approach would
go a long way in enhancing work-experiences, staff outputs and overall company
achievement as they can share and learn from genuine and unbiased appraisal
reportage.
================================================================
Item Type: Project Material | Attribute: 98 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment