Performance Management

Question 1

performance management (def)

Answer 1

• the process of how an organization manages and aligns all of its resources to achieve high performance (text)
• efforts directed at ensuring that organizational goals and objectives are being realized

Question 2

two main parts of performance management

Answer 2

1. performance management is a CONTINUOUS process
2. ALIGNMENT - performance management is a shared vision within the organization, with all employees understanding how their individual performance contributes to organizational performance

Question 3

two main categories (purposes) of performance management

Answer 3

1. developmental

2. administrative

Question 4

developmental (purpose of performance management)

Answer 4

• the ultimate goal of performance management is performance improvement (textbook)
• a key element of successful performance management systems is that employees are provided with feedback that highlights their job-related strengths and weaknesses (textbook)

Question 5

administrative (purpose of performance management0

Answer 5

• a key source of info for such things as making salary adjustments, deciding who should be promoted or recognized for exceptional performance, and identifying individuals who should be terminated (textbook)

Question 6

two types of performance data

Answer 6

1. soft / subjective data

2. hard / objective criteria

Question 7

soft / subjective data (examples0

Answer 7

• judgmental data

- performance appraisal (ratings)

Question 8

hard / objective criteria (examples)

Answer 8

• production, sales, absesnteeism

Question 9

biggest problem with human judgement

Answer 9

• errors and biases

Question 10

two often cited problems with performance appraisals

Answer 10

1. managers tend to be too lenient (among other errors)

2. employees tend to react defensively to criticism

Question 11

leniency / severity

Answer 11

• a type of rating error in which the rater assesses a disproportionately large number of ratees as performing well (positive leniency) or poorly (negative leniency) in contrast to their true level of performance (textbook)
• caused because raters apply personal standards derived from their own standards or past experiences
• most lenient raters are low in conscientiousness and high in agreeableness
• similar to teachers being “tough graders” or “easy graders”

Question 12

issues with leniency

Answer 12

• comparison across supervisors is difficult
• comparison among employees is difficult
• hard to prove it exists

Question 13

halo error

Answer 13

• a type of rating error in which the rater assesses the ratee as performing well on a variety of performance dimensions, despite having credible knowledge of only a limited number of performance dimensions
• based on raters general opinion of employee
• rating someone similar on all dimensions

Question 14

central tendency

Answer 14

• a type of rating error in which the rater assesses a disproportionately large number of ratees as performing in the middle or central part of a distribution of rated performance in contrast to their true level of performance
• refers to the rater’s unwillingness to assign extreme - high or low - ratings
• rate everyone as average
• may occur if rater is not familiar with ratee

Question 15

primary / recency

Answer 15

• rater only remembers the first and last impression of ratee

Question 16

other errors / biases

Answer 16

• escalation of commitment and self fulfilling prophecy

- general biases and stereotypes

Question 17

rating issues

Answer 17

1. leniency
2. halo
3. central tendency
4. recency / primary
5. other general errors

Question 18

how performance appraisals can be improved

Answer 18

• focus on work, not person
• focus on why, not who
• focus on organization, not individual
• use constant, open dialog
• train the appraisers
• use better rating scales / formats

Question 19

rater training

Answer 19

• train to:
  1. recognize errors
  2. recognize performance standards (frame of reference training)
• results of training are mixed
• the process of educating raters to make more accurate assessments of performance, typically achieved by reducing the frequency of halo, leniency, and central tendency errors.

Question 20

three assessment catergories

Answer 20

1. employee comparison
2. graphic rating scales
3. behavioral checklist

Question 21

employee comparison methods (three) (type of assessment category)

Answer 21

1. rank-order
2. paired comparison
3. forced distribution

Question 22

rank order (from employee comparison methods)

Answer 22

• overall performance or dimensions
• forced variance
• difficult at middle levels
• time consuming and tedious
• central tendency: eliminate - have to distribute everyone
• leniency: eliminated
• halo: reduced if dimensional rank

Question 23

paired comparison (from employee comparison methods)

Answer 23

• version of rank order
• each employee compared to others
• many comparisons = n(n-1)/12

Question 24

forced distribution (from employee comparison methods)

Answer 24

• assumes performance is normally distributed
• 10% lowest an highest
• 20% as below and above average
• 40% as average

Question 25

graphic rating scales (type of assessment category)

Answer 25

• most common method
• more absolute than relative
• general assessment of traits / performance
• distinguished among two main factors:
  a. specificity of anchors
  b. clarity of factors

Question 26

behavioral checklist (type of assessment category)

Answer 26

• focused on observable job behaviors
• job analysis is critical
• critical incidents are typically the basis
• need to quantify these to assess performance

Question 27

weighted checklists (behavioral checklist)

Answer 27

• development:
  1. each incident is rated by experts
  2. these rating are averaged
  a. one value per incident

Question 28

forced-choice checklists (behavioral checklist)

Answer 28

• choose most appropriate incident from a group of 3-5 that best describes the employee
• all incidents are either + or -
• eliminates good or bad responses

Question 29

behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) (behavioral checklist)

Answer 29

• rating scale with specific behavioral anchors
• development:
  1. general list of critical incidents
  2. categorize into dimensions
  3. retranslation by different SMEs
  4. rate each incident on degree of effective performance
  5. use rated incidents as rating scale anchors
• advantages:
  a. very job relevent
  b. errors usually reduced
  c. employee involvement
• disadvantages;
  a. very time consuming
  b. costly
  c. job specific
  d. may be rating hypothetical behavior

Question 30

behavioral observation scales (BOS) (behavioral checklist)

Answer 30

• frequency of critical incident is rated

- total performance score is sum of ratings

Question 31

mixed-standard rating scale

Answer 31

• generate three critical incidents for each job dimension/area (good, average, or poor)
• all incidents are put in random order
• rate each employee as:
  a. better than…
  b. worse than…
  c. same as…
  … behavior described in critical incident