Performance appraisal is credited by researchers as a tool for spurring employees towards the attainment of organizational goals. Considering employees' attitudes as a vital component in the attainment of organizational goals, this study investigated the impacts of performance appraisal on the job-satisfaction and commitment of employees. The study used a descriptive research design. A stratified random sampling was used to sample 200 respondents from Microfinance organizations in Ghana. The study used questionnaires as its data collection instrument. Regression Analysis and correlations were used to analyze the data collected. The study revealed that employees' job satisfaction is positively related to and impacted by fairness in the appraisal system, linking appraisals with promotion, clarity of roles and feedback about their performance. The study also revealed that employees' commitment is positively related to and impacted by the linkage of appraisals with salary, identification of training needs, clarity of performance appraisal purpose and employee involvement in the formulation of appraisal tools. The study recommends that organizations comply with rewards systems linked to performance levels, provide training to employees identified to be in need of training so as to further enhance the relevance of performance appraisal, and also instigate and/or maintain communication between management staff and their subordinates especially with regards to their performance.

While usually argued to be improving firm performance, the effect of top management team (TMT) functional diversity on firm performance is mixed. Bridging the TMT diversity, team adaptation, and threat-rigidity literature, we present a contingency model in which the relationships between intrapersonal functional diversity (at both CEO and TMT levels) and adaptive firm performance depend on the CEO–TMT power gap and severity of threat. To test our hypotheses, 270 firms, which have been severely affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were selected from China's A-share listed companies. Multiple regression analyses have shown that a moderation of CEO intrapersonal functional diversity's effect on adaptive firm performance by the CEO–TMT power gap is moderated by the severity of threat. However, no significant main or interaction effect of TMT intrapersonal functional diversity was found. The findings of this study have implications for the recovery or improvement of firm performance in threat situations.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the mediating role of top management team (TMT) team trust in examining the relationship between team processes (internal and external) and human resource management (HRM) decision performance (quality and satisfaction) in the context of the People’s Republic of China. Design/methodology/approach The sample data of this study include 524 team members from 76 TMTs in east China’s Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui provinces. IBM SPSS AMOS 22.0 software was employed for the data analysis. Findings The study finds that TMT internal and external processes have significant positive effects on HRM decision quality and satisfaction. The study further finds that TMT team trust partially mediates the relationship between TMT processes (internal and external processes) and HRM decision quality and satisfaction. Practical implications This research provides useful insights into the role of TMT team trust in enhancing managerial decision performance. Originality/value This study is among the limited studies that explore the influence of team trust in the relationship between TMT processes (internal and external processes) and HRM decision quality and satisfaction among TMTs in China. This study has extended TMT knowledge in mainstream management with guidelines on how to enhance organizational decision performance.

To achieve sustainable development, a top management team (TMT) and the quality of its strategic decisions on sustainability are critical. This paper builds a relationship model between top management team (TMT) cognitive heterogeneity and the quality of strategic decisions. This research is important because TMT cognitive heterogeneity can comport decision-making schemes with complex and changing environments. Specifically, this paper explores the intermediary role of the team fusion process composed of different shareholders’ agents in integrating TMT heterogeneous cognition to improve the quality of strategic decisions. It adopts the upper echelon theory, which proposes that decision-makers have limited rationality and face difficulty in collecting and analyzing information in complex and changing environments. A questionnaire survey of 107 Chinese enterprises was conducted. Through the research framework of “cognitive heterogeneity–team fusion–strategic decision quality,” this paper constructs a moderated mediator model with entrepreneurial spirit as the moderating variable. Based on statistical analysis, the following results and contributions are obtained. First, TMT cognitive heterogeneity positively affected strategic decision quality. Second, two dimensions of team fusion—information integration and emotional fusion—mediated the relationship between TMT cognitive heterogeneity and strategic decision quality. Third, entrepreneurial spirit positively moderated the relationship between information integration and strategic decision quality, as well as the relationship between emotional fusion and strategic decision quality. The implications of our results related to sustainability are also discussed.

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