Título en español.

Abstract

Performance appraisal (PA) is one of the main activities in the human resources administration field. Also, it is a traditional mechanism for the control of productivity in work organizations. In this study we focused on the administrative practices related to the use of performance appraisal in the executive and judicial branches of the government of Puerto Rico. The State requires the evaluation of its employees‘ performance since 1947; however, the first official performance appraisal system was established in 1978. Since that time and to this date, government agencies have struggled to comply with the law regarding performance appraisal systems. We conducted a survey in which 60 agencies from the executive and judicial branches took part. We collected data about the total number of employees, number of employees evaluated, number of PA systems in place, performance dimensions, PA methods, and the use of the PA ratings. Results suggest that while union employees account for 78% of the career public servants in participant agencies, only 21% of them were being evaluated.