ABSTRACT

The usage of an ineffective performance appraisal mechanism by most Nigerian business organizations has led to the determination of the nature of relationship that exists between performance appraisal and the corporate business survival of selected soft drink manufacturing firms in Edo State, Nigeria. Specifically, this study seeks to ascertain the nature of relationship that exists between performance appraisal and the development of the skills and potentials of employees. The study was anchored on Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory. Survey research design was used for the study, complete enumeration sampling method was used, test-retest reliability test was used for the study, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient Analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that there exists a strong positive relationship between performance appraisal and the development of the skills and potentials of employees since p-value (0.000) < 0.01 (at a 2-tailed test) and the r value obtained is 0.872(87%). Based on the foregoing the researcher concludes that there exist a strong positive relationship between performance appraisal and the corporate survival of Nigerian Bottling Company and Seven Up Bottling Company, Edo State. It was against this backdrop that the researcher recommended the enactment of an effective performance appraisal mechanism by the organizations in focus as it is essential for their survival, the organizations of study should frequently appraise the performance of employees in other to identify grey areas that need to he improved upon and the implementation of the recommendations made by an appraisal exercise by the organizations of study.