Recruitment and performance
appraisal in the public sector
‘Leaders should be bound only by rules that would lead to success.’
(Machiavelli, 1469-1527)Introduction
For the past decade or so, academics, civil servants and politicians have been working
together towards building human resource capacity for better human resource perform-
ance in Africa (McCourt 2001; URT 2004; Debrah & Ofori 2005; Michael 2005; Kiragu
& Mutahaba 2006). Discussions often point out the challenges facing human resource
management in Africa. Recruitment and performance appraisal functions in the public
sector are some of the key areas of concern and that are still valid today and will con-
tinue to be so with limited improvement in the coming decade (McCourt 2001; Michael
2005; Awortwi & Vondee 2007; Mulikita 2007).
The chapter is a contribution to the above noted on-going efforts and discussions on
improving human resource management in Africa. It examines the emerging discrep-
ancy between the expectations of employee recruitment and open performance ap-
praisal. The argument that runs through the chapter is that upon first glance, the re-
cruitment and performance appraisal processes in the public sector in Tanzania, as it
might be in Sub Saharan Africa, seem to be fairly generic in terms of objectives and
methodology. However, the process has remained with little or no relevance to the job
performance or even at times has become detrimental to job performance itself. As a
way forward, an alternative model is proposed which provides lessons for African coun-
tries. The data on which the chapter is based was drawn from recruitment and perform-
ance management practices of 9 ministries, 5 local authorities and 3 executive agencies
in Tanzania from 2005 to 2008. The study was made from a sample size of 250 top,
middle and lower level civil servants. The intention of this investigation was to explore
the preparation, processes and techniques of getting people into organisations and per-