Straight ranking method

It is the oldest and simplest method of performance appraisal, by which the man and his performance are considered as an entity by the rater. No attempt is to be made to fractionalize the rate; the whole man compared with the whole man; that is the ranking of a man in a work group is done against that of another. The relative position of each man is tasted in terms of his numerical rank.

Limitation- this is the simplest method of separating the most efficient from the least efficient and relatively easy to develop and use. But the greatest limitation of his method is the as described below:-

In practice it is very difficult to compare a single individual with human beings having various behavior traits.
The method only tells us how a man stands in relation to the others in the group but does not indicate how much better or worse he is than another.
It is difficult task when large number of person are rated
It does not eliminate snap judgment.

Grading Method

Under this system, the rater consider certain feature and marks them accordingly to the scale, train categories of worth are first established and carefully defined. The selected feature may be analytical ability, cooperativeness, dependability, self-expression, job knowledge, leadership, etc they may be as below:-

A-out standing B-very good C-average D-fair E-poor

These are used in the selection of candidates by the public service commission.

Limitation-
in this method we can’t get the actual performance of the employee. for example if consider that those employee who got 50 to 60 point is in average then the who got 50 point may be de motivated and who got 51 point may be happy with that appraisal .

Graphic Rating Method

This is the most commonly used method of performance appraisal. Under it a printed form one for each person to be rated. The factors which are including in this method are employee characteristics and employee contribution. In employee characteristics are included are leadership, attitude, enthusiasm, locality creative ability, analytical ability, co-ordination. In the employee contribution are include the quantity and quality of work, the responsibility assumed, specific goal achieved, regularity of attendance. These traits then evaluated on continuous scale where in the rather place a mark somewhere along a continuum.

Limitation-
However this method also not free from limitation
The rating is generally subjective often the rating cluster on the high side when this method is used
Another severe limitation is that it assume that each characteristics is equally important for all jobs

Forced choice description Method

it attempts to correct a rater tendency to give consistently high or low rating to all the employees under this method the rating elements are several sets of pair phrases or adjective relating to job proficiency and personal qualification the following statement are illustrative of the type of statement that are used

Organize the work well
Lacks the ability to make people feel at ease
Has a cool even temperament
Is punctual and careful
Is a hard worker and co-operative

Limitation-
Trained technicians are required prepare sets of series for each occupational group
Most of the raters become irritated with the test because they are not being trusted
The result of evaluation doesn’t prove useful for training purposes because the rater is ignorant of how he is evaluating the individual.