Work Motivation and Performance Appraisal: The Chinese College Instructors Perceived Procedural Fairness of Moderating Effect

Abstract

This article aimed to clarify the mechanism of performance appraisal on college instructors’ teaching and research performance by constructing a moderated mediation model. By surveying 407 Chinese public college instructors on the performance appraisal model, work motivation, job (teaching and research) performance, and procedural fairness using a questionnaire, the research performed descriptive and regression analyses. It is the first time to explore the impact of different performance appraisal on college instructors’ teaching and research performance through empirical methods, which enriches the theoretical literature of performance appraisal, and has guiding role for college to reasonably determine instructors’ performance appraisal model, indicators and methods. The results showed that: (1) Performance appraisal and work motivation positively affect college instructors’ teaching and research performance. (2) Intrinsic motivation plays a mediating role in the relationship between developmental assessment and job performance;extrinsic motivation mediates evaluative assessment and teaching performance. (3) The direct effect of performance appraisal on instructors’ job performance and the mediating effect of work motivation on the relationship between them are moderated by the perceived fairness of the performance appraisal procedure. These findings help understand the relationship and mechanism between faculty performance appraisal and job performance, enlightening the rational use of performance appraisal in higher education.