It is unethical to terminate the employment of a person based on his self-appraisal. However it is ethical to terminate his employment if he is proven to be poorly performing based on other evidence. The answer to your last question is obviously: No.

Hello,

Thanks Savinaya for the question and Ian for being the first to answer - well, in some countries - you need to have the Ministry of Labor involved - and you need to issue this employee with three warning letters (with evidence), copied to the Ministry of Labor and then you can terminate...

Thanks and regards

Theodora Issa

The institution needs to be careful who it hires. It may be difficult to get him / her out of the system!

Anyone who marks 'poor' on their self-appraisal clearly needs to have a discussion with their line manager. If they think they are poor because they are not able to do the job then they should be supported through training and staff development. If they feel that their performance is poor because they don't have the institutional support then this too should be investigated. I would imagine that anyone who continuously grades their self appraisal as poor is not really suited to the job and should be 'helped' out the door. It is important to follow employment law and procedures but a poor educator can negatively impact the learning of their students. So a purely Utilitarian argument would be the the removal of one might be best for the many.

The question might also be about three things firstly why do they feel this way and secondly to look at the support mechanisms which exist to allow them to develop into a more effective, confident and competent teacher. Thirdly - what is the organisation going to do about it ?Sometimes in any employment situation there are reasons which can be easily addressed but might take time to fix, if at all.

Removing someone is never easy and yes legal as well as ethical considerations are important.

May be the question is Should the institution terminate the person who marked poor in his own self appraisal form

@Caroline, Perhaps, just perhaps, the question should read: Should the institution terminate THE CONTRACT OF the person who marked himself poor in his own self appraisal form? :-)

A very interesting question!

Indeed, self-appraisal reports are in some places used in matters related to promotions. My personal views in this regard are a bit different. Self-appraisal reports should be used only when the question of extension of services after retirement comes up. However, with reference to promotions, such reports are meaningless. A teacher with bad reports may actually apply for a higher position in another University. Will the reports have any effect in the interview concerned in any manner in that case?

Incidentally, such self-appraisal reports do not have any link with the matters associated with appointment of Vice-Chancellors in Universities!

@Ian Kennedy .Yes you are right , no doubt termination is unethical. The questions framed in the self appraisal form should be more scientific. Even-though he claims himself poor, there should open discussion regarding the factors.For eg , in particular institution ,there is no basic infrastructure to conduct research and institution forces the person to show more number publications , but person publishes one or two publications. No question is here, how do this researcher can marks himself in self appraisal form? .The person will have different innovative ideas but Institution will not support and the person will end in doing some work which is routine and person feels that he is not upto the marks and he marks himself poor ? then this is management duty to take the issue seriously and discuss with the expert committee.

@Theodora Issa

Thanks for information. No doubt ,institution should follow legal procedures. But in countries like India, private sector mafia is too big and they will not follow any rules and regulations framed by the Government because the judiciary system is very slow and in some cases teacher has won the case after 20-30 years , on the verge of retirement or after retirement. So these private sector will use these tool against the teachers. On another hand teacher is paid very less salary and it is difficult to pay high fee for lawyers so teachers in India always work under the shadow of fear !!!

@Erik Blair Completely agree with your opinion. The marking himself doesn't mean that he is really poor. The students are the one who should decide the quality of teacher. Teacher can feel he is not upto the mark ,might because of bad infrastructure provided by the institution and no sufficient infrastructure provided to conduct the study upto the intellectual level of teacher. Then teacher can feel that he is poor and yet gain so many things. So if person marks himself poor even though students feed back good ,he is a good teacher on documents, then its institution duty to conduct open discussion and help the teacher.

Caroline Gibby , Thanks

Good view points.

Yes, your last sentence is remarkable "May be the question is Should the institution terminate the person who marked poor in his own self appraisal form"

Even I feel there should be guidelines regarding this.

@ Hemanta Baruah

Thanks, Views are good and you pointed out views in different angle.The promotion should be based on performance not on self appraisal form.