Perceived Stress, Performance Appraisal Discomfort and Core Self-evaluation in a Non-Western Context.

The study is an exploratory investigation of the relationship among perceived stress, performance evaluation discomfort and beliefs, and employee’s self-evaluation – specifically core self-evaluation. Little has been done exploring perceived stress as a possible consequence of the discomfort experienced by appraisers and this study attempts to fill this gap.
This cross-sectional survey obtained usable data from 167 public and private sector employees in Gaborone, Botswana, with about 81% from the public sector. Respondents were 51.5% males, 45% unmarried and 54% having over 10 years work experience. Respondents were well educated with 70% possessing basic university degree or higher and over 65% earned over $1500.00 monthly indicating a fairly well paid African sample. Data were collected using structured questionnaires with 47 standardised items from four scales (perceived stress – 10, performance appraisal discomfort – 20, performance appraisal beliefs – 5 and core self-evaluation – 12). Data was analysed using Pearson’s coefficient correlation multiple regression (stepwise).
The result indicated direct but insignificant correlation between performance appraisal discomfort and performance appraisal belief; inverse relationship between performance appraisal discomfort and perceived stress; inverse relationship between performance appraisal discomfort and core self-evaluation. All these results though in the predicted direction were non-significant. A significant and direct relationship was however found between perceived stress and core self-evaluation. This is perhaps indicative of a strong link between how a person sees, views and values self as a possible reflection of the state of the individual’s perceived stress. Also core self-evaluation and performance appraisal discomfort emerged as predictor variables for perceived stress, with the former being the stronger predictor and together explaining about 7% of the variance.
Limitations and future research direction include: the small number of predictor variables explored; a need for cross-cultural and multi-cultural investigation of the variables to enhance and enrich our understanding of the constructs; and a sampling limitation imposed by a somewhat self-selecting organisational sample used. Managerial implications include: albeit performance appraisals are infrequently done, the importance attached to it by managers and organisations makes discomforts with it critical as issues such as individual advancement, reward obtainable and disciplinary issues are all associated with it. Similarly core self-evaluation may be a key to high levels of individual performance. These issues may impact on perceived and actual stress experienced by individuals hence the need to direct more attention to the investigation of this linkage – a process that this study attempts to promote.