Mutual funds are one of the most important financial institutions which play an undeniable role in transferring excess funds toward companies.In Iran, for the first time and under the Provisions of the securities market act (ratified in 2005), mutual funds were established, launched and introduced to capital market realm since March 2008.The main objective of this study is to provide empirical finding to answer this question that whether PERFORMANCE of mutual funds is good enough in comparison with market return or not.Risk-adjusted PERFORMANCE measures which were applied in this research are: sharp ratio, Jensen's alpha, Treynor ratio and Sortino ratio for the period of March 2008 up to the July 2010.In accordance with the findings of the research, with ANOVA, there is not significant difference between risk-adjusted PERFORMANCE measures of mutual funds and the market return. Also, based on the Sharp ratio, Treynor ratio and Sortino ratio, there is no significant difference between the PERFORMANCEs of mutual funds and the market return. But, Jensen's alpha didn’t refuse existence of any significant difference between different mutual funds.

Background and objective: PERFORMANCE development is an undeniable need for organizations, and PERFORMANCE management is a tool for achieving the objective. The present research aims at reviewing the impact of PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL on human resource development in terms of satisfaction, motivation, creativity, retention, and police personnel tendency towards training in a police organization.Method: The present research was of applied type, but taking into consideration nature and method was of descriptive- survey type. Questionnaire was used for collecting data, and its reliability and validity were respectively confirmed based on experts’ supervision, and Cronbach’s Alpha (a=92.67).Data was analysed by SPSS, one-tailed and two-tailed t tests and single-item variance analysis. Statistical population includes contractor staff and police officers in IRI Police (IRIP) HQs; 108 samples were estimated and questioned through using statistical methods.Findings: Testing research hypothesis indicates that there was significant relationship between PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL and quintable constituents for development of human resources. There was also difference between some pairs: police officers and contractor staff; men and women; and noncommissioned officers (NCOs), sub-lieutenants and top-ranking officers (brass hats) in terms of the constituents.Conclusion: PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL through impacting on motivation, job satisfaction, creativity and initiative, tendency toward training, and human resources retention on one hand and human resources development on the other. In line with this, PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL has the most and least impact o job satisfaction, and creativity and initiative, respectively. In terms of consistent and tendency toward training, it affects permanent staff more than contractor staff.

Developmental PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL pays especial attention to employee's APPRAISAL reactions. In this APPRAISAL, positive reaction and positive feelings towards APPRAISAL approach is an indication of PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL success. This PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL consists of goal setting and feedback activities. In Developmental goal setting and feedback, employees recognize them as clear, relevant and understanding activities. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between developmental PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL and work PERFORMANCE and the influence of affective commitment, intrinsic motivation and autonomy orientation to this relationship. The research was conducted in a regional manufacturing firm in Iran and data was collected by utilization of a standard questionnaire. Before distribution of the questionnaire, appropriate techniques were used to assure acceptable reliability and validity of the instrument. Results from survey showed that the relationship between developmental PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL and work PERFORMANCE was mediated by employees’ intrinsic motivation, and strongly moderated by their autonomy orientation. For employees with a weak autonomy orientation, the relationship was positive, but for those with a strong autonomy orientation, the relationship was negative.

Sensemaking perspective is one of the strongest conceptual frameworks for explaining human and social phenomena in organizations. The aim of this study is to apply sensemaking perspective to understand the PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL system in organization. Employees’ perceptions and interpretations and their actions play a pivotal role in PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL effectiveness. Human beings are meaning making creatures and for understanding their actions, one has to enter into their worlds of meaning. The research method of this study is Charmaz’ s constructivist Grounded Theory. The sampling method is theoretical sampling and the data gathering method is interviewing. Seventeen emlpyees from two companies with PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL system were interviewed. In line with Charmaz’ s constructivist approach to grounded theory, initial and focused coding formed the basis of our data analysis. Findings show that employees’ create four meanings out of PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL: PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL as the managers’ tool of oppression, PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL as all encompassing behavioural record, PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL as a torn paper, and PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL as an unknown phenomenon. In the contexts of PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL employees adopt four action strategies: exhibitive PERFORMANCE, authentic PERFORMANCE, indifference and senseseeking. This research can help organizations manage employees’ meaning and consequently improve the effectiveness of PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL. Additionally, findings of this research enhances the extant understanding of the HRMPERFORMANCE relationship.

Environmental complexity in the business competitive arena and increasing o customer expectations has increasingly revealed the awareness necessity of organization’s strength and weakness and continuous improvement of key measures. Therefore, one of basic concerns of today’s organizations is to achieve a comprehensive, reliable and flexible PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL, so that by using it, to attain exact and necessary information by its today’s position, and by having future vision, to learn from past errors.An efficient model is balanced scorecard that has strategic view on organization’s PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL that besides concerning to financial dimension, appraise organization from three other dimensions of customer, internal processes and learning as well. This paper, while pointing the definition of concept and background of balanced scorecard, proceeds to evaluate the PERFORMANCE of Tbarestan steel company using balanced scorecard model.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL systems are affected by organizational social context. Social context consists of tow Factors, Distal Variables, and, Proximal Variables. Distal factors include but are not limited to organizational culture, organizational structure, and, values. Proximal variable categorize as both process factors and structural factors. In this paper the process factors were examined. The result demonstrates there is a significant difference between current and favored (expected) condition of process variables. Furthermore, the relation between APPRAISAL system and supervisor & subordinate relationship accepted in confidence level of 99 percent. And also there is a significant relation between APPRAISAL system and Leadership. However, no significant relation found between PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL systems and employees commitment, and group cohesion too. Generally, there is a meaningful relation between (process) social contexts of organization, including supervisor and subordinate relationship and leadership with PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL systems. These results are also in line with other studies.