The influence of Open Performance Review and Appraisal System on employees’ performance: The Experience from Iramba District Council

Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) were introduced by the Tanzania government in 2004 as a new innovation for managing individual performance in the Tanzania public service. OPRAS is viewed as an idiosyncratic tool in the history of Human Resource Management in the Tanzanian public service. OPRAS as proposed by Performance Improvement Model is important to the adoption and nurturing of the performance management culture in the public service. Nevertheless, sketchy evidence reveals that despite the Government efforts to introduce OPRAS, it has not been in a position to develop a real and effective Open Performance Review and Appraisal System. With this in mind, this study intended to evaluate whether OPRAS as currently used in IDC is adequate to improve employees’ performance. The study employed a cross-sectional research design. A sample of 80 respondents was used. Data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The data collected were analyzed and processed by use of SPSS computer software and descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and tables were presented. The findings suggest that majority of participants reported that OPRAS as currently used in IDC is not adequate at improving employees’ performance. Also, majority of respondents agreed that OPRAS as currently practiced in IDC is not linked with other human resource systems specifically training, career development, rewards and promotion. Moreover, it was found that, the implementation of OPRAS in IDC is affected by a number of challenges which include: budget deficits, absence of regular feedback from supervisors, little dissemination of the knowledge of the tool among employees and supervisors and little emphasis from the top management of IDC