Chapter 7

Responsibility for Appraisal

HR department is responsible for coordinating the design and implementation of performance appraisal programs. Line managers should be involved too. The supervisor should evaluate performance.

appraisal interview

An interview in which the supervisor and subordinate review the appraisal and make plans to remedy deficiencies and reinforce strengths. To minimize the possibility of hard feelings, the face-to-face meeting and the written review must have performance improvement, not criticism, as their goal.

Critical incident technique (CIT)

Appraisal method is most likely to cover the entire evaluation period and not focus on the last few weeks or months. Requires managers to keep written records of highly favorable and unfavorable work actions.

Performance appraisal is an informal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance.

False

The critical incident method is an appraisal approach that rates employees according to defined factors.

False

The rating scale method requires keeping written records of highly favorable and highly unfavorable employee work actions.

False

Performance appraisal (PA)

Formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance.

According to the Uniform Guidelines and the court system, job-relatedness is the essential element in evaluation criteria for performance appraisals.

True

HR managers use performance appraisal data for recruitment, selection, compensation, and training purposes.

True

Having multiple raters makes the 360-degree feedback evaluation method more legally defensible .

True

The 360-degree feedback evaluation method involves evaluation input from multiple levels within the firm as well as external sources.

True

The BARS method combines elements of the traditional rating scales and critical incident methods.

True

The first step of the performance appraisal process involves identifying specific performance goals.

True

The work standards method compares each employee's performance to a predetermined standard.

True

360-degree feedback

a performance input from multiple sources such as supervisors, subordinates, peers, and customers. Shifting responsibility to multiple sources reduces common appraisal errors.

Traits

an individual's predisposition to think, feel, and behave. Behaviors: viewed as resulting from a variety of sources.

Work standards

compares performance to predetermined standard. Standard: normal output of average worker operating at normal pace. An advantage of using this method is that it can be very objective if standards are fair and set in a transparent manner.

MBO (management by objectives)

could possibly be the most effective PA technique because supervisors and employees determine objectives for employees to meet during the rating period and employees appraise how well they have achieved their objectives. MBO is used mainly for managerial and professional employees and typically evaluates employees' progress toward strategic planning objectives.

Behavioral Observation Scale (BOS)

displays illustrations of positive incidents (or behaviors) of job performance for various job dimensions. The evaluator rates the employee on each behavior according to the extent to which the employee performs in a manner consistent with each behavioral description. The BOS method tends to be difficult and time consuming to develop and maintain. Moreover, to ensure accurate appraisal, raters must be able to observe employees closely and regularly

Comparison systems

evaluate an employee's performance against that of another.

Performance Management

goal oriented process directed toward ensuring that organizational processes are in place to maximize productivity of employees, teams, and organization.

Sequence of the performance appraisal process

identify performance appraisal goals, establish criteria and communicate to employees, examine work performed, appraise the results and discuss appraisal with employee.

Competencies

include a broad range of knowledge, skills, traits, and behaviors that are needed to perform a job successfully.

forced distribution

stacked rating system. A forced distribution approach, in which the rater must place a specific number of employees into each of the performance groups, can be used with this method. Many companies use forced distribution approaches to minimize the tendency for supervisors to rate most employees as excellent performers.

goal achievment

the goals might be profit and market share. At lower organizational levels, the outcomes might be meeting the customer's quality requirements and delivering according to the promised schedule.

job-related criteria

the performance review should include only criteria directly related to the job being performed. Most basic criterion needed in employee performance appraisals.

Behaviors

viewed as resulting from a variety of sources.