Supervisor Book - Chapter 12

Organizations are judged by their records of ______________.

Achievement

What are three (general) groups/units of Rating Criteria

Patrol and Traffic Personnel Investigative Personnel Staff and Auxiliary Personnel

Studies have revealed that the ______________ or _______________ of employees is one of the most important parts of the management process

evaluation or appraisal

Rating forms will usually list from ________ to _________ traits or characteristics that must be considered by the rater.

four to twelve (and not more than 12).

The traits to be measured can be relatively easily ____________and uniformly _________________ by all raters. (Rating Traits)

observed evaluated

Personnel rating systems are inherently unstable because the instruments are ___________________.

subjective

The most effective raters are those whose temperament and personality are __________________________________.

well balanced

What are some Ability traits that can be rated?

Stability Initiative Job knowledge Judgment Common sense

Discussion of Rating - Follow-up (Concept)

The interview and follow-up contacts should be conducted on a friendly, helpful, positive basis.

What are some broad characteristics of supervisors who excel in rating their subordinates?

1. can distinguish facts from feelings or impressions. 2. are able to weigh the performance of their subordinates against a consistent standard, which they accomplish by establishing norms of conduct and performance as a point of departure for rating personnel. 3. base their ratings on objective data whenever possible, without allowing subjective emotions, individual likes and dislikes, or biases to influence them. 4. are careful to avoid committing the error of rating on the basis of vague general impressions and, instead, make every effort to rate on the basis of personal individual traits. 5. are systematic and thorough in recording accurate data relating to their observations of employees throughout the rating period.

Evaluation System Failures - Rating Shortcuts (Concept)

A personnel evaluation system worthy of the cost should not be compromised by shortcut methods.

Evaluation System Failures - Rating Abusers (Concept)

A rating system is bound to fall into disrepute if personnel rated come to lose confidence in it because it has been abused by management Ratings should be utilized only as they were intended; once the purposes for which they were adopted have been announced, their use should be confined to those purposes They are most commonly used in promotional examinations, as a basis for assignment, or for merit pay raises

Rating Standards - Representative Employee Standard (Concept)

Accuracy may be improved when the rater compares each employee with others who have been selected as having the greatest value to the organization, those who are in the middle group having average value, and with those who are considered as having the least value. Additional standards may be selected that will tend to increase rating flexibility and accuracy.

Rating Errors - Central Tendency (Concept)

All too often, raters will group their ratings near the center of the rating scale, with few ratings at the bottom or top. This tendency to avoid the extremes on the rating scales usually results from a policy requiring justification for extreme ratings. This error of central tendency is especially common when no system has been devised by the individual rater or the organization to gather adequate, specific, and objective information that could be used to defend or justify a high or low rating.

Discussion of Rating - Acknowledgement of Rating (Concept)

Although the person rated cannot be forced to sign his or her rating report, a signature space should be provided on the form, and the employee should be encouraged to sign it. This ensures that the subordinate has been informed of its content.

What are some categories that can be used for rating traits and abilities?

Broad Categories Examples: Personal characteristics (traits needed for the job) Ability (adequate performance of the duties of the position) Performance (quality and quantity of work) Suitability for promotion (acceptable to superior work)

What are three Rating Methods?

Composite Ratings Group Ratings Individual Trait Ratings

What are some Rating Standards listed in the book? (5 items)

Employee Ranking Representative Employee Standard Ideal Employee Standard Numerical Standard Forced-Choice Standard

Rating Traits (Concept)

Evaluation reports for probationary officers of all ranks should be made at least once per month during the probationary period to give the broadest picture of the employee. The supervisory officers' rating form should be constructed to focus the rater's attention on the many traits and characteristics required for a supervisory position. This is consistent with Oettmeier and Wycoff's advice that there should be separate forms for different assignments. Rating traits and abilities can be grouped into broad categories. Undoubtedly the list should be considerably more detailed for probationary personnel than for tenured officers. The most important criteria for job success should be selected and evaluated carefully to prevent granting tenure to unsuitable personnel.

Evaluation Period (Concept)

Evaluations should be prepared from evidence collected during a particular rating period. Ratings for an established period should not be contaminated by observations carried over from some other period.

Evaluation System Failures - Employee Pressures (Concept)

Even the persons rated may thwart an evaluation system by sheer pressure, especially when the level of their performance as reflected by ratings forms a basis for their pay. The marginal employee is usually the most vociferous and may attempt to embarrass his or her superiors by accusing them of prejudice. Experience has shown that some supervisors will go so far as to change unjustifiably their rating reports on an employee if his or her complaints are loud enough.

What are some Personal Characteristics that can be rated?

Honesty Character Attitude Appearance Persistence Imagination Loyalty

Rating Standards - Ideal Employee Standard (Concept)

Ideal employee descriptions may be developed to avoid the necessity for changing criteria when the selected employees leave the unit or the organization or their performance becomes such that they can no longer be used as a pattern for ratings.

Validity and Reliability of Ratings (Concept)

If ratings do not reflect with reasonable accuracy the relative competency of personnel—their capabilities and their value to the organization—the effort and expense involved in making them are largely wasted.

Reliability (Concept)

If several persons using the same information rate an individual substantially the same, their ratings would be a reliable measure of the employee's abilities; However, raters rarely have the same abilities to observe, collect, and report evidence regarding the performance of subordinates with the same degree of accuracy and objectivity Therefore, training must focus the rater's attention on means of bettering the collection and use of data.

What are the causes of Evaluation System Failures

Indifference Employee Pressures Failure to Train Raters Rating Abusers Slipshod Procedures Rating Shortcuts

A rating report is said to be ____________ if it measures consistently and reasonably accurately (even if not perfectly) each time it is used.

reliable

What are the four steps of Discussing Ratings with the Employee

Interview Acknowledgement of Rating Follow-up Written Notification of Rating

Rating Method - Individual Trait Ratings (Concept)

It is recommended by many who are experienced in the merit rating process that raters be encouraged to rate each employee on one characteristic at a time rather than to rate each employee completely before rating another. It is argued that the halo effect is increased when only one employee is considered at a time until his or her rating is completed because of the good or bad influence one trait has on another.

What are some Suitability for Promotion traits that can be rated?

Leadership ability Administrative ability Job knowledge Communication skills Interpersonal skills Ability to plan Acceptance of responsibility Ability to organize Decision-making ability Command presence Disciplinary function

What are some Common Rating Errors? (7 items)

Leniency Personal Bias Central Tendency Halo or Horns Effect Related Traits Overweighting or Recency Subjectivity

Rating Standards - Forced Choice Standard (Concept)

Once traits are selected that are considered to be the most important indicators of quality of performance, several options can be provided from which the rater must select the one that most closely describes the performance of the person being rated. The options can be given a numerical value to indicate the subject's overall rating, or may be classified in broad terms such as poor, fair, good, very good, excellent, or other descriptors indicative of the rater's assessment of each trait. If extreme ratings are given, they should be supported by objective evidence that is more than just one person's subjective opinion.

Discussion of Rating - Interview (Concept)

Perhaps one of the greatest uses to which personnel evaluations can be put is their discussion with the person rated. The interview with the employee calls for a degree of tact and forthrightness if it is to have maximum effect. At the conclusion of the interview, a substandard employee should be asked to recap his or her understanding of what was agreed on and what is expected of that person in the future.

What are some Performance traits that can be rated?

Quality of work Quantity of work Accuracy Attention to duty Perseverance Efficiency Supervision required Ability to resolve complaints from public Handling of specific job duties (patrol, traffic, investigations, reports) Performance under stress Effectiveness

Rating Errors - Personal Bias (Concept)

Raters often tend to rate higher than is justified those persons they know well and like as well as those who subscribe to the same opinions as the supervisor.

A Case for Evaluation Systems (Concept)

Rating reports carefully made and judiciously used serve as valuable aids to the organization in the maintenance of reasonable performance standards and in the administration of a progressive training, placement, promotion, executive development, and salary program based on merit. Personnel evaluations are valuable devices for determining if employees should be granted tenure or if they are entitled to earn or retain longevity or merit pay. They are instruments that can be useful as one basis for determining if employees should lose merit pay, and industrial concerns often utilize evaluation reports to determine the order in which to lay off personnel or reemploy them. As clinical instruments, rating reports not only are valuable in giving employees credit for superior performance but also afford a basis for calling attention to inadequate performance. They provide clues to the detection and weeding out of personnel who are unfit for the job and thus help to avoid liability arising from the doctrine of negligent retention.

Evaluation System Failures - Slipshod Procedures (Concept)

Rating reports often affect a person's entire career; therefore, those made carelessly may have serious consequences

Rating Standards (Concept)

Rating systems are inherently subjective since they involve a personal audit by one person of another's conduct or performance. One of the inherently difficult problems in the police service is that of fairly comparing persons assigned to widely different tasks. Most supervisors recognize that many of the observations they make of their subordinates cannot be completely objective. The biggest problem seems to be the selection of a rating method that will yield the most reliable results within large groups where functions vary widely.

Evaluation System Failures - Indifference (Concept)

Regardless of the sophistication of the rating procedures or the importance of the program, an evaluation system will be successful only if the raters or those rated really want it to succeed.

What are some Objectives of Evaluations?

Service ratings, personnel evaluations, employee appraisals, merit ratings, or whatever the method is called will provide one tool for measuring employee capabilities and giving management an inventory of them. Such evaluation systems also provide a means for supervisors to record systematically at specified intervals their opinions regarding the performance of subordinates. They establish a basis for rewarding or penalizing personnel and for explaining to them why they are or are not progressing satisfactorily. Evaluations based on sound, objective data are unparalleled as a foundation on which the supervisor can help a substandard employee develop a program to improve performance. Absences, tardiness, production, and accomplishments can be easily measured directly, but this is not so with such traits as loyalty, ability to get along with others, and temperamental stability. Every supervisor worthy of the name engages constantly in the process of comparatively rating subordinates, whether there is a formal or informal rating system or none at all. In larger organizations it has been found that in the interests of efficient management, a more formalized system is necessary so that an individual employee's progress may become a matter of record. The process should always have the purpose of seeing how actual employee performance compares to the ideal or standard it is intended to measure.

Rating Method - Group Ratings (Concept)

Some research has shown that use of multiple raters is a safeguard that prevents rater bias. By pooling observations, discussing factual evidence, and preparing a group rating with which the raters agree, the tendency to overweight the evaluation is reduced, individual biases are tempered, and a rating norm can be established by the group for more accurate results. The disadvantage of this method is that a biased (but articulate) supervisor may unduly prejudice the other raters in favor of or against the person being rated. Group conference ratings should always include the names of the participants on the report form.

Rating Method - Composite Ratings (Concept)

Some supervisors prefer to rate their subordinates individually, with the superior officer of the unit making a composite rating from the several individual appraisals, usually by a process of averaging the ratings. The shortcomings of this method are readily apparent. Extreme ratings will tend to be in agreement, while midrange ratings will often be in conflict.

Rating Errors - Related Traits (Concept)

Sometimes referred to as logical error or association error, the error of related traits is committed when the rater gives similar ratings to traits that seem to be similar. Each trait must be considered by itself by the raters

Evaluation System Failures - Failure to Train Raters (Concept)

Systems devised to provide a means of assessing employees will ordinarily not survive (or if they do, will be relatively ineffectual) unless training is provided for those who are to do the rating. Training raters is the key to the successful administration of a rating system and is its most usual source of weakness When measurement of employees are not consistently applied from unit to unit or when difficulties are encountered in attempting to compare ratings from several divisions of the organization, the deficiencies can usually be traced to the lack of training or a failure on the part of management to clearly define rating traits Another cause of failure in rating programs results from the neglect of management to give raters an opportunity to learn rating procedures under supervision

Rating Characteristics (Concept)

The best supervisors are usually the best raters because they are more diligent in carrying out their rating responsibilities than are the poorer supervisors and are less likely to commit the error of leniency by overrating the poor performers The better supervisors are generally more discriminating and more objective than are their less effective colleagues. Lenient supervisors who rate all their subordinates alike are covertly disrespected In addition, employees tend to believe that most supervisors are influenced by personal relationships—either good or bad—more than they are by performance, and lenient raters lend support to this belief. The unfair rater will rarely (if ever) receive the approval of subordinates

Critical Incident Technique (Concept)

The critical incident technique involves the collection of objective data about an employee's performance, which can be used as a basis for more effective performance ratings. Critical incidents indicating superior or unsatisfactory performance are reported as they are observed and can be used as an objective standard for ratings about which raters can agree.

Rating Errors - Subjectivity (Concept)

The error of subjectivity occurs when raters are unduly influenced by one or two characteristics that have special appeal to them. The rater must consider the progress of ratees, their accomplishments (both qualitative and quantitative), and the probabilities of their future patterns of performance being generally similar to what they have been in the past. Any projection of such performance patterns must be founded on what has been learned of the individual's previous behavior.

Gathering and Recording of Performance Data (Concept)

The first-line supervisor, usually a sergeant in the police service, is the key figure in any rating system, since their job involves the productivity of the officers under their command. If they are required to rate subordinates, they will be forced to learn more about them and about the job they are performing.

Performance Standards (Concept)

The first-line supervisors play a prime part in setting standards of performance for their subordinates. Subordinate personnel too often do not know (other than in very abstract terms) what their supervisors expect simply because they have not been told or because the scope of their responsibilities has not been delineated. Every supervisor in the patrol service must make it clear by every means at his or her disposal that officers are theoretically accountable for most crime in their assigned area or beat, for selective enforcement of the law to reduce the incidence of traffic accidents resulting from accident-producing violations, for an acceptable level of service for those in need of it, and for other police activities calculated to reduce crime when patterns begin to appear. The supervisor must let subordinates know that in addition to the rating basis noted above, they will be rated on the manner in which they observe and report police incidents and conditions requiring correction, such as inadequate street lighting, which might be corrected to reduce crime; engineering changes, which might be needed to reduce traffic accidents; or exposed hazards, which might be better controlled to reduce the incidence of juvenile delinquency. They will then recognize what should be done, how they are expected to do it, and what degree of competency is expected of them. Regardless of their assignment, they are entitled to know this, and when they do, certain standards will emerge based on their relative productivity, both qualitative and quantitative.

Rating Errors - Leniency (Concept)

The lenient rater will mark an excessive number of subordinates in the upper 20 percent or upper 10 percent and fewer in the lower ranges. This tendency to overrate has many obvious dangers, foremost of which is the damaging effect it has on the morale of the truly outstanding workers. The marked tendency to rate high results is called a skewed curve, with an excessive number of personnel rated in the upper rang

Recording Methods (Concept)

The method of accumulating evidence about subordinates' performance may be established as a matter of practice and policy. The techniques used by supervisors may vary according to their individual needs The memory of the supervisors alone will not store the multitude of observations they make each day on their subordinates. If they rely on recollections alone, their ratings are likely to be based on broad impressions rather than on specific objective data.

Ratings Method (Concept)

The method selected for rating personnel depends in part on the individual needs of the organization and the preference of the raters. When ratings are made under supervision so that instructions are understood and some controls are exercised over them by a superior familiar with the performance of those rated, the quality of the evaluations improves.

Rating Errors - Overweighing or Recency (Concept)

The tendency of raters to be unduly influenced by an occurrence, either good or bad, involving the person rated near the end of the rating period is known as the error of overweighting or recency

Rating Errors - Halo or Horns Effect (Concept)

The tendency of raters to rate in terms of a very general impression rather than on the basis of specific traits is commonly referred to as the halo or horns effect.

What are three reasons why Supervisors may tend to overrate deficient subordinates besides the desire to be popular:

They may do so if they are forced to confront subordinates about their deficiencies Supervisors feel that they might be challenged about the low ratings and forced to justify them. They also might overrate employees merely because they like them and wish to protect them.

Rating Standards - Employee Ranking (Concept)

This method of "ranking" or "scaling" ratings is still widely used and ranks employees from highest to lowest in the unit or on the basis of most valuable to least valuable. This method is simple and easy to administer but has the disadvantage of lacking common standards of measurement, especially when employees from widely different assignments must be compared. When this method of ranking employees is used, the supervisor is forced to make meticulous appraisals of subordinates or risk the danger of hurting morale and being accused of arbitrariness or favoritism.

Discussion of Rating - Written Notification of Rating (Concept)

This technique is effective as a method of commendation but has serious limitations if utilized to replace the face-to-face interview with the employee whose work needs improvement.

The traits selected for rating purposes should be examined critically to ensure that they are as ______________ as possible (Rating Traits)

specific

A ________________ report is one that is an accurate measurement of the ability it purports to measure.

Valid

Validity (Concept)

Valid reports actually reflect the officer's value to the organization in terms of specific traits that are related to work, such as amiability, industry, attention to duty, and cooperativeness. It is necessary that at least the core traits and abilities necessary for the police job be included in the rating form if it is used for all nonsupervisory personnel. The rater must exercise care to avoid weighting all traits and abilities equally, since the job being performed by the person rated may not require the same abilities—or at least the same amount of a particular ability—that another job may require.

Rating Standards - Numerical Standard (Concept)

When quantity of production is most important to an organization, descriptive standards may be used to advantage in measuring accomplishments. Such measurements are difficult to apply to the many abstract traits that are important in police work.

Which rating error is by far the most common?

the error of Leniency

The traits describe actual _______________________ required by the job. (Rating Traits)

characteristics

One of the most significant organizational factors contributing to poor performance is the failure of supervisors to ___________________________________________________________________ to subordinates.

clearly communicate the expected standard of performance

The traits are common to the __________________ possible number of employees. (Rating Traits)

largest

The traits are selected so as not to ______________ with others, which would tend to defeat the purpose of the rating. (Rating Traits)

overlap

Evidence from rating criteria must be interpreted with great care, however, since such data usually measure __________________ only and do not equate it with the ___________________ of the work done.

quantitative production quality