Factors affecting effectiveness of performance appraisal in the Public Service in Kenya: A case of Kenya School of Government Mombasa Campus

Performance appraisal is a critical stage in the performance management process. It is a mechanism that can be used by organizations to better their staff, departmental and general performance of the entity they serve. The value of effective appraisal cannot be underestimated because it has a great bearing on the overall performance management system. In the public sector, the correct appraisal of employee performance is critical in enabling the public service achieve a describable or measurable change in service delivery. The research sought to achieve its general objective of identifying the factors that determine effectiveness of performance appraisal exercise as practiced in the public service in Kenya. Specifically, the study purposed to determine the effects of supervisor communication, performance planning prior to appraisal as well as the reward in the appraisal process. This was meant to understand how the factors affect the employees and the public service in Kenya can make performance appraisal better by improving on the results of these three variable. The study was guided by the goal setting theory, expectancy theory, psychodynamic theory of personality and social cognitive theory. The study used the descriptive survey research design which is exploratory. The participants of this study are the permanent and pensionable employees of Kenya School of Government-Mombasa as at September 2023. The study collected both data (primary and secondary) by distribution of semi-structured questionnaires. Afterwards, the data measures of central tendency (such as mean, median and mode) and measures of dispersion (such as variance, standard deviation and range) were used to analyse the data. The study used correlation analysis techniques, T-test analysis, ANOVA and regression analysis using SPSS ver. 23. The study findings showed that performance planning affects the implementation of performance appraisal with mean 4.19 and s.d 0.668 followed by reward through promotion, training, recommendation influences the effectives of performance appraisal with mean 4.11 and s.d 0.950 and Supervisor communication was established to influence effectiveness of performance appraisal system, generating a mean 4.0 and s.d 0.756. in general, the variables in the study namely: performance planning, reward positively, and supervisor communication, were found to influence how effective performance appraisal was in public service in Kenya. The study recommended that; the management should put up strategies to enhance supervisor communication by ensuring timely feedback to employees, good communication between staff and supervisors and ensure supervisors assess employee’s performance objectively and without bias, ensure proper performance planning by putting up mechanisms to ensure development of meaningful goals, ensure supervisors clearly explains the goals to employees and enhance supervisors supports to enable staff achieve their goals and revamp their reward system through providing training opportunities, motivating staff through recognition, support and promotion.