Factors Influencing Evaluative Judgment in the Employee Performance Appraisal System at Tehran Municipality

The aim of this study is to ascertain the variables that impact the evaluative decision-making process of assessors within the employee performance evaluation framework of Tehran Municipality. The performance appraisal system within this organization, being a crucial aspect of human resource management, encounters obstacles such as the issue of inaccurate assessments made by performance evaluators. The employed research methodology was qualitative content analysis, and data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The study's population and sample comprised 27 officials and experts affiliated with the Tehran Municipality. Through the analysis of descriptive codes obtained from interview transcripts, a total of 73 initial codes were identified, which were further categorized into 24 concepts belonging to 9 subcategories. These subcategories were then classified into 4 overarching themes, namely: factors pertaining to the evaluator, factors pertaining to the evaluated employee, organizational factors, and extraneous factors. The primary approach to discerning the determinants that impact evaluators' assessments is to concentrate on the instruction of a proficient evaluator subsequent to the identification of the benchmarks for a competent human resource evaluator. Moreover, transitioning from conventional evaluation approaches to a proficient evaluation framework can significantly mitigate the adverse impacts of evaluators' prejudiced assessments. Furthermore, it is recommended to provide assistance to the personnel of the Municipality in the implementation of a sophisticated performance evaluation mechanism, while also mitigating the impact of managerial authority and external factors on the evaluative process.