Chapter 5 Performance Appraisal I-O Psychology

ultimate criterion

encompasses all aspects of performance that define success on the job

Behavior Observation Scale (BOS)

appraisers rate the frequency of critical employee behaviors, rate subordinates on the frequency of critical incidents as they are observed to occur over a a given period on a 5 point scale

correlations between ratings are results-oriented criteria...

are low due to poor implementation

people high in political skill

are more likely to not be perceived by supervisors to use ingration behaviors for personal gain, those low were perceived to use ingration for personal gain. (Harris, Kacmar, Zivnuska & Shaw 2007)

jobs that have computerized performance monitoring

assembly-line workers, fast food workers, machine operators, retail clerks, sales people, accountants, personnel managers, health care providers, ups delivery, and long distance truck drivers

Behavioral expectation Scale BES

behaviors are listed in terms of expectations similar to BARS

criterion sensitivity

can the measure distinguish between effective and ineffective employees

inadequate information error

error in performance appraisal in which supervisor rate their subordinates even though they may not know enough about them to do so fairly or accurately. Solution: train raters and allow them to decline to rate those they don't know well

leniency error

rater is unwilling to assign other than a favorable score

ways to improve performance appraisals

training, providing feedback to raters, and subordinate participation

Job-related personal data

- absenteeism, earning history, accidents, and advancement rates - easy to compute from human resources - provides little data on ability but distinguishes good from bad employee - distinguishes workers and employees

views on computerized performance monitoring

- many employees are not bothered by the constant supervision and like more to the other forms of performance appraisals (depends on how data is used) - can be stressful (more alone than in groups) may reduce work quality and performance

Why do performance appraisals?

- provide an accurate and objective measure of how well a person performs on the job - validation of selection techniques and criteria - make decisions about that person's future with the organization - identify training requirements - employee improvement - pay, promotion, and other personnel decisions

criteria for performance appraisals

- should be based on job analysis to document specific critical incidents and behaviors related to job performance - appraisers should focus on actual job behaviors rater than personality characteristics - supervisors should be well trained - notes, records, and documentation should be retrained

disadvantages of ranking technique

- too many employees the supervisor could not know them all - supplies less evaluative data than rating - does not readily determine strength and weaknesses - cannot indicate similarities in workers (for example all 3 out of 10 should be at the top)

Biases in the work place

- whites are judged to be higher performers than black - women are held to higher standards then men - older workers have lower ratings compared to younger - to protect against bias: personnel decisions should be based on a well-designed performance review program that included formal appraisal interviews

performance appraisal methods for managers

-often evaluate low or middle managerial personnel, senior personnel rarely evaluated, high-level management failure can be rewarded - high level performance reviews are less systematic and informative

purpose of performance appraisals

1. administrative: decide on pay or promotion 2. research: select instrumental validation 3. general: validation of selection criteria, create better training techniques, help employees improve, decide on: pay, promotion, and alter personnel decisions to reward employees

the post-appraisal interview

1. diagnose strengths and weakness of employees to improve 2. must be communicated to employees

improving post-appraisal interview

1. employee participation in appraisal process 2. interview should be positive, constructive, and supportive 3. interviewer should focus on specific job problems instead of personality 4. employee and supervisor should establish joint goals to be achieved for next appraisal 5. employee should be able to question and challenge the evaluation without fear of retribution 6. changes in salary and rank should be linked to appraisal criteria

performance appraisal

A periodic formal evaluation of an employee's job performance, including a discussion of professional development goals, for the purpose of making career desicions. Also called "performance evaluation."

peer rating

Managers and executives at the same level assess one another abilities and job behaviors. Developed in 1940s, ratings by peers and colleges tend to be higher than superiors. positive correlation between peer ratings and subsequent promotion, but low inter-rater reliability than by supervisors

political skill

The ability to understand others and to use that understanding to influence them in ways designed to support attainment of our goals.

offering feedback

a post appraisal interview can be hostile when evaluation has criticism. Employees may blame the appraisal system, downgrading their job, or criticizing their supervisor, computer feedback is more useful, feedback does not help everyone, negative feedback can lead to a decline in performance

role conflict

a situation arises when there is a disparity between job demands and employee personal standards. High role conflict supervisors give higher evaluations (then justified) because: control of work situation, avoid conflict with subordinates, or gain subordinates good will

advantage of paired comparison technique

accurate and judgmental process is simple

subordinate participation

allowing employees to participate in their own evaluation lead to improvements of their appraisal processes, increase satisfaction to the appraisal system, and belief of its fairness, accuracy, and usefulness

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

appraisals rate critical employee behaviors, focus on behaviors instead of personality characteristics, objective, behaviors associated with superior or unsatisfactory performance, behaviors are standards for appraising effectiveness. Unsatisfactory can depend on supervisors identifying behavior, can be misleading if critical incidents is inadequate. Does meet federal fair employee guidelines

types of performance appraisal methods for managers

assessment centers, evaluation by superiors, peer ratings, self-ratings, evaluation by subordinates, 360-degree feedback

impression management

behaving in ways to present ourselves to others in a positive way so they like us, or give good evaluations, risk for political skill

beliefs

beliefs on human nature can influence ratings. Rate on how they view people in general compared to their specific characteristics and behaviors of the individual

criterion contamination

biased evaluations resulting from the examiner, example of biases: attractiveness, leniency, and halo effects.

evaluation of superiors

brief essay on performance, initiative, and specific job skills

written narratives

brief essays describing employee performance to appraise performance, more prone to bias, can be ambiguous and misleading (to avoid negativity), must apply numerical rating procedures

training for performance appraisals

can reduce errors in appraisals particularly leniency and halo 1. creating an awareness that abilities and skills are usually distributed in accordance with the normal curve, so its acceptable to find broad differences with in a group of workers 2. developing the ability to define objective criteria for workers behaviors- the standard performance level against which workers can be compared

disadvantage of paired-comparison technique

cannot be performed on large groups, 6 workers would need 15 comparisons, 60 employees would need 17770 comparisons. N= (#of people)(N[N-1]/2)

Cognitive process of raters

category structures, beliefs, interpersonal affect, and attribution

paid-comparison technique

compare the performance of each worker with that of every other worker in the group. Rank ordering of workers by the comparative judgments are more systematic and controlled. Compares two people at a time and choses the superior one and specific characteristic need to rate the comparisons report for each item

computerized performance monitoring

computers record the number of keystrokes per unit of time, errors, pace of work, and number of length and work breaks or rest pauses. Also applies to phone calls for telecommunication jobs.

disadvantage of forced-choice technique

costly compared to other merit rating methods because each item must be validated, difficult to understand, and tedious to choose between the two choices for every person

reacting to criticism

criticism may lead to reduce motivation and job performance, supervisors (unless trained) can't possess skills to diagnose a poor worker and prescribe program for improvement, if feedback was provided more frequently than an interview then behavior could enhance

assessment centers

do not assess actual behavior, but a variety of activities encountered during the job

most-recent performance error

error in performance appraisal in which a rater tends to evaluate a worker on most recent job behavior rater than behavior throughout the period since the last appraisal, behavior can be variable, To solve shorten time between appraisals or require more frequent ones

average rating error

error in performance appraisals in which a rate is unwilling to assign a very good or very poor ratings. Consequently most ratings fall in the middle of the scale.

disadvantage of management by objective

goals can become unrealistic, employees may feel pressured to set higher goals

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

guidelines also apply for hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff, discharge, or early retirement. Performance appraisals procedures must be validated. To reduce bias: performance appraisals should focus on job analysis that specify critical behaviors related to successful job performance rather than personality.

Sources of Bias in performance appraisal

halo effect, constant bias, most recent performance error, inadequate information error, average rating error, cognitive process of raters, personality of raters, role conflict, and impression management

to control for halo effect

have more than one person rate the workers or have a supervisor rate one characteristic at a time for each worker so one characteristic doesn't carry over. Not much of a problem, cannot be detected or could be illusory some people are just outstanding

personality of raters

high-self monitors present themselves in favorable ways according to social situations, gave more lenient and less accurate ratings than low-self monitors. High conscientiousness gave high ratings. Personality similarities between rater and rater influence evaluations.

providing feedback to raters

how each managers ratings differ from other mangers ratings, 90% say feed back effects their future ratings

disadvantage of forced distribution technique

if all workers are average or above only 30% can take that spot. Predetermined categories may not be fair if there is small range of scores, hard to compare across groups Superior 10%, more than average 20%, Average 40%, below average 20%, poor 10%

advantages of computerized performance monitoring

immediate and objective feedback, reduce rater bias, help identify training needs, facilitate goal setting, and increase productivity

disadvantage of computerized performance monitoring

invades privacy, increase stress, reduce job satisfaction, and workers focus on quantity rather than quality

management by objectives MBO

involves a mutual agreement between employee and managers on goals to be achieved in a given period, focus on results how well do employees achieve goals 1. goal setting (fixed) 2. performance review meet fair employment guidelines, and have been found to increase motivation and productivity

actual criterion

is best representation of ultimate criterion, we cannot adequately measure every aspect of job performance

Criterion Practicality

is the measure usable in a particular job environment or context?

opposition to performance appraisals

labor unions: seniority rather than employees merit take base for promotion, only 11% of workforce employees: don't like testing or criticism managers: don't want to judge or be responsible professors: students can be too critical of professors

measuring performance is ideally....

linked to criteria that are validly and reliably measured

self-ratings

managers assess their own abilities and job performance, similar to MBO, higher and more linear than ratings by supervisors, focus on interpersonal skills. They have a motivating effect for people who overestimate job performance, feedback from subordinates influenced by supervisors view their leader ship abilities

BARS and BOS

meet federal employment standards because it is based on actual behaviors required for performance, research has not found consistent support for the superiority of either BARS or BOS

360-degree feedback

multi source approach to performance appraisal that combines ratings from several sources such as superiors, subordinates, peers, and self, reduce bias, more objective Reponses, if rating agree manager may be willing to change, not always work, managers may prefer self-rating, more effective in individual cultures than social, more costly, more popular

merit rating

objective rating methods designed to provide an objective evaluation of work performance

interpersonal affect

our feelings or emotions toward another person. In performance appraisal, the emotional tone of the relationship between manager and employee, whether positive or negative, can influence the assigned ratings.

Objective performance appraisal techniques

output measures, computerized performance monitoring, and job-related personal data

Average rating and leniency error

problem: does not reflect the range of differences that exist among workers and provides no useful data solution: maintain a record of supervisor rating tendencies

forced-choice technique

raters are presented with groups of descriptive statements and are asked to select the phrase in each group that is most descriptive. Cannot distinguish desirable or undesirable characteristics. One statment is desirable, but the other is disguised in its appeal. Ex. is careful or is diligent, is cooperative or is stopping work habits

output measures

should be based on quantity, quality: take into consideration work environment and tasks, length of job experience must not always be objective

attribution

source of error in performance appraisal in which rater attribute or assigned positive or negative explanations to an employee behavior. Workers they like the negative characteristics are due to external factors. Workers they do not like negative characteristics are internal.

constant bias

source of error in performance appraisals based on the different standards used by raters not all supervisors rate the same. Can be solved by require distribution of ratings according to the normal curve.

evaluation by subordinates

upward feedback, students evaluating professors, more growth from managers with poor rating, managers improved more when meeting with subordinates, more reliable when results are used for developmental purposes than used for administrative purposed, better and more honest if employees remained anonymous

rating scales

used more frequently, supervisor indicate how or to what degree a worker passes each relevant job characteristic for example, cooperation, supervisory skills, time management, communication skills, judgment, and attendance. Compare current performance with past performance to see improvement. They are easy to construct and are an attempt to reduce bias (but not entirely possible)

category structures

when an appraiser thinks about a worker belonging to a category the information recalled is biased to that category

a poor rating on appraisals from employees

worried about the effect of appraisals worried their assessment is on personality and not behaviors, are not informed, problems are the organization not the employees, not used to decide on promotions or skills (so useless)

Subjective (judgmental) performance appraisal techniques

written narratives, merit rating, rating scales, ranking technique, paired-comparison technique, forced distribution technique, forced-choice technique, behaviorally anchored rating scale, behavioral observation scale, and management by objective

how many are dissatisfied with the appraisal system?

90% and they also want to eliminate the programs

forced distribution technique

Supervisors rate employees according to a prescribed distribution of ratings, similar to grading on a curve.

ranking technique

supervisors list the workers in their group in order form highest to lowers or best to worst, simple to do, compare employees to each other, doesn't allow for listing similarities, doesn't indicate the extent of difference between best and worst ratees

a poor rating of appraisals from managers

takes allot of time for appraisals and some wait until last minute making appraisals rushed and try to eliminate potential for confrontation, 90% are dissatisfied with performance appraisals

halo effect

tendency to judge all aspects of a person behavior as character basis on a single attribute, example, attractiveness= friendly, likeable

criterion deficiency

the actual measure (criterion) does not cover the entire theoretical performance area. Are important criteria ignored?

criterion relevance

the degree to which the actual criterion is related to the ultimate criterion. When jobs are multifaceted, is one aspect given too much weight and another too little? Are we relying on the wrong measures of performance?