Theme 1-3 Flashcards
Discuss common performance appraisal rater errors.
Rater bias AU
Bias not related to job performance and may stem from personal characteristics such as age, sex, disability or race. It might also be related to org. Related characteristics such as seniority, membership of org. Athletic team, etc.
Stereotyping AV
Mentally classifying a person into a affinity group, and identifying the person as having the same assumed characteristics as the group.
Halo effect AW
Rating a person high on all items because of performance in one area. Eg. Person arrives early at work causes him to be seen as dependable and other areas also seen in positive light eg. His quality of work also good even though it is mediocre.
Minimise by supervisor training and focus that if person does well in one area, they can also do less well in other.
Central tendency AX
When raters rate everyone as average. They may find it difficult and unpleasant to evaluate some employees higher or lower than others, even though performances may reflect a real difference.
Leniency AY
inexperienced or poor supervisors may decide the easiest way to appraise performance is simply to give everyone a high evaluation.
Strictness AZ
The opposite of leniency and supervisors are often guilty of strictness give employees constantly low ratings even though some employees might have achieved average or above average performance.
Recency/primacy effect BA
A rating error occurring when an appraiser assigns a rating on the basis of the employee’s most recent performance rather than on long-term performance.
To avoid do frequent appraisals and/or keep running log of critical incidents of behaviours and outcomes.
Discuss how you would avoid appraisal problems.
Solutions to appraisal problems focus on two areas: the appraisal system and rater training.
Appraisal systems should be based on a job analysis that specifies the content of the job. Specific performance criteria for each content area can then be developed. Employees job performance then measured against these criteria.
Effectively training the persons, usually supervisors, who perform the appraisal can minimise appraisal problems such as leniency, halo effect and recency.
Who are the different parties involved in PAs?
Supervisors BB
Best position to observe the employee’s behaviour and determine if the employee has reached specified goals and objectives.
Sometimes they avoid appraisal because face-to-face confrontations is uncomfortable, but policy makers should make sure that PAs are done in a professional manner.
Peer evaluation BC
Sometimes employee working closely with the employee is better able to give accurate appraisal.
Customer/Client evaluations BD
Includes everything from comment cards to specialised questionnaires, telephone research and other techniques to enable the employer to receive a customer evaluation of the employee’s performance. Difficult though for customer to see and rate every aspect of employee performance.
Multirater or 360 appraisal is where the supervisor interviews employee’s customers, suppliers, peers and sometimes subordinates to develop a more complete picture of the employee’s performance.
For it to be successful a number of aspects need to be addressed:
- It is important that anonymity is assured. Org. Must see to it that no employee finds out how any evaluation team member responded.
- Also important that respondents be held accountable for the decisions they make.
Advantages of 360 assessment:
- Improves two way communication and increases the opportunity for employee involvement.
- It demonstrates respect for the employees by showing that their opinions count.
- It can create better working relationships within the organisation - it improves the ability to work in teams.
Advantages for the individual:
- The feedback is invaluable to the individual because it comes from numerous sources, providing multiple perspectives and opinions.
- It can increase the reliability, fairness and acceptance of the data by the person being rated - feedback is received from multiple sources and not only one.
- It serves as directional purposes because recipients of feedback receive valuable information about their strengths and weaknesses which can guide them in their future career development plans.
Limitations to the system
- Can place more pressure on managers, as the weight of the feedback may be more than they can handle.
- Individuals may feel threatened by this form of assessment.
- Org. may be saturated with forms.
- The value of results may be limited.
- When individual being offered the choice of raters, they have opportunity to choose friendly raters.
- Filling out forms and questionnaires can be time-consuming.
- The process can be expensive.
- The system requires training to work effectively.
Self ratings BE
Rating employees give to themselves.
Reverse ratings BF
Employees rate supervisors or students the instructor.
What is the role of Assessment Centres in performance appraisals?
- Indentify employees who have higher level management potential. BG
- Select first line supervisors BH
- Determine employee development needs BI
What topics should be included in the training of PAs
- The purposes of performance appraisal BJ
- How to avoid problems - halos, bias, central tendency and so on. BK
- How to conduct non-discriminatory appraisals BL
- The ethics of appraisals BM
- How to conduct effective appraisal interviews BN
Discuss two strategies that employees can use in impression management.
When employees are managing and disguising the impressions they make, they are engaged in impression management.
Strategies they can use are:
Demotion preventive strategies:
- Giving accounts or excuses (“I could not finish, I was sick”)
- Apologies
- Dissociation (“I was the only person on the team who saw the problem coming”)
Promotion enhancing strategies
- Entitlements (“Perhaps you remember my last suggestion? It’s already saved us money!”)
- Enhancements (“Not only is my suggestion saving money, but morale has improved as well”)
- Obstacle disclosure (“I had to overcome reluctant co-workers and red tape to succeed”)
- Association (“When I was talking with the marketing director about…?)
What can an organisation do to evaluate their Performance Appraisal system.
Interviews
- Managers from various departments were interviewed. Discussions focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the present system and on recommendations for improving the system.
Analysis of the employees’ records
A random sample of almost 200 PA forms was selected to uncover possible discrimination. The forms were also examined to spot rater errors such as central tendency, leniency and halo effect.
Analysis of the relationship between the employees and their ratings
Employees ratings were correlated with certain personal and work factors (such as age, tenure and race). Employees were asked whether appraisal results were discussed with them.
Analysis of PA systems in comparable settings
The org. Appraisal was compared to the systems used by 39 similar organisations.
