An examination of performance appraisals on New Zealand dry stock farms

Abstract

Human Resource Management (HRM) is becoming increasingly recognised by businesses the world over as an important means of creating a competitive advantage in the marketplace. One of the key HRM practices, performance appraisal is also becoming increasingly acknowledged as a crucial element in the overall function of HRM, However, despite this increasing recognition, there is still a dearth of literature examining HRM or more specifically, performance appraisal in the New Zealand agricultural industry. Agriculture is the backbone of the New Zealand economy contributing over $20 billion annually (Department of Statistics, 2005), yet in spite of this there is limited literature examining either the presence or effectiveness of HRM practices such as performance appraisal in this important industry. This shortage of research has implications for New Zealand agricultural operations, whereby there is a lack of knowledge regarding the presence and effectiveness of HR practices such as performance appraisal. This study makes a contribution to the HRM literature by investigating the presence, formality and function of performance appraisal on New Zealand dry stock farms. Specifically, it uses a survey approach to examine the extent to which performance appraisals are present on dry stock farms and the formality in which they are conducted. Furthermore, it investigates the major functions for which performance appraisals are carried out on dry stock farms. The sample comprised of 36 dry stock farms located in the North Taranaki region, 29 of which returned completed questionnaires. The results reveal that while almost all dry stock farms implement performance appraisal as part of their HRM, this performance appraisal is generally highly informal. In addition to this, the data also indicated that these performance appraisals are used mainly for assisting with remuneration decisions, identifying employee strengths and weaknesses and recognising training needs. The reasoning behind these results and relationships are discussed, and the implications that these findings may have for New Zealand dry stock farms highlighted.