In preparing this narration, the evaluator may be governed by the evaluative criteria that are implicitly contained in written job specifications, position descriptions and standards of performance. Ideally, the criteria are more explicitly stated, and are responsive to the expectations of the employee’s supervisor and to the expectations of other key leaders in the organization. Typically, however, the criteria of evaluation are defined informally by the person who writes the evaluative report and bear little relationship to the intentions of the organization or even to the interests and needs of the employee who is being evaluated.
While the unstructured narration often purports to describe the employee’s activities or achievements, it usually focuses on traits or characteristics. The narration will contain analyses and examples of the employee’s initiative, or her friendliness, or her creativity. Only when the employee is writing her own evaluation does the narration turn primarily to activities and accomplishments. The unstructured narration is valuable when standards of performance are unclear and cannot easily be clarified.
This is the reason while unstructured narratives are used so often in organizations that provide human services—such as community centers, schools and assisted living facilities. There are not clear criteria for judging the quality of service being provided, hence the performance appraisal system remains informal and highly flexible. The unstructured narration is also appropriate for an employee who has been given a highly technical assignment or is working on a creative or specialized task over a long period of time. A rigid and highly formal evaluation system will tend to be viewed as an insensitive intrusion on the unique work being done by this employee.
While the unstructured narrative may be the only approach that is acceptable for some employees, it doesn’t really serve any of the twelve feedback functions that I described earlier in this chapter. This approach definitely does not serve any of the functions I mention in the previous essay that require clarity of performance criteria, such as personnel decision-making (Function One), monitoring of compliance (Function Six), insuring of equitable treatment (Function Seven) or research and development (Function Nine). It also does not provide a sufficiently detailed or disciplined analysis to guide the planning of development programs for employees (Function Two), the clarification of organizational intentions (Function Three) or the identification of staffing needs (Function Five).
