Performance Appraisal Practices in Indian HEI – A Critical Analysis

With a large student population, the number of Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in India is growing manifold. When it comes to the number of HEI, India stands third in the world next to China and the U.S. (Rekha N, 2016). However, even after 75 years of independence, only four Indian B Schools occupy a place in the top 100 globally (Nanda, 2021). Though the number of management institutes and the student intake therein is increasing, the number of international students in these B Schools is declining. Whereas the scenario is contrary to what we observe about the population of international students studying in top global institutes outside India. Compared to other countries, India has the biggest advantage of the best return on investment and lowest fees for MBA programs. Despite this, why do Indian B schools lack a global profile? It is time for us to introspect the quality of our educational institutes and the programs offered by them. Existing studies and literature suggest that there are many factors responsible for it but this paper explicitly attempts to understand the critical issues hitting the Indian B schools -mainly the failure to attract and retain good quality faculty members. Though there are several reasons, the focus of the research work is on the performance appraisal practices followed in HEI specifically in private management institutes in Pune, India, and its outcome It is found in the research outcome that though the private institutions consider the parameters of performance appraisal as mentioned by regulatory authorities, it is not directly linked with promotions, increments or financial incentives. There is no concrete positive outcome of performance appraisal; it is done for compliance purposes only. In the end, the researchers propose suggestions that may benefit all the stakeholders and help the Indian B Schools to acquire a global profile.