Nurse's perceptions of the justice in performance appraisal: a qualitative study

Performance appraisal is an important responsibility of health care system and increases employee’s morale and productivity. The aim of this study is to explore nurses'' perceptions of justice in Performance appraisal. This qualitative study was conducted in Tehran in year 2012. Nurses were selected purposively from an educational hospital of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. For data gathering، 5 focus group sessions، involving 10 to 7 nurses at each session، were held by using semi-structured interview and continued until the data reaches saturation. Data were analyzed using framework analysis. Four major themes and 14 subthemes were emerged from the analysis of textual data. These themes were organizational context (discrepancies nursing standards and nursing duties، lack of appropriate incentives for nurses، the lack of an appropriate institutional framework، lack of a clear nursing job description، and the gap between educational theory and practice)، performance appraisal structure (inefficient systems of laws and regulations introduction، subjective appraisal، overall appraisal form، discontinuation in appraisal)، performance appraisal process (lack of strict supervision of the authorities، unfair appraisal، and lack of respect for the persons dignity) and performance appraisal results (lack of proper feedback and little attention to meritocratic). Participants believed nurse performance appraisal system facing with multiple problems that are affected justice in performance appraisal. It seems to achieve the ultimate goal of performance appraisal، improved quality of patient care، change and revision is necessary.