Can Performance Appraisal Systems Inspire Intrinsically Motivated Employees?

Can a performance appraisal system (PAS) elicit better performance from an intrinsically motivated workforce? By explicitly linking extrinsic rewards to performance, a PAS might actually discourage the work effort of the primarily intrinsically motivated federal workforce. Data from the 2000 Merit Principles Survey show that few federal employees believe that the PAS increases their productivity. Logit analysis confirms that intrinsically motivated employees are more skeptical of the effectiveness of PAS than are extrinsically motivated employees who are demographically similar, work in similar positions, and have similar beliefs about the fairness of the system and the probability of being rewarded for superior performance.