IO Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Performance Management

  • Performance Management: A system of individual performance improvement that typically includes (1) objective goal setting, 2 continuous coaching and feedback, 3 performance appraisal, and 4 development planning.


Chapter 5: Motivational System of Individual Improvement

  • Motivational system of individual improvement: (DeNisi & Pritchard, 2006).


Chapter 5: Key Points in Performance Management System

  • Key points: Four components are linked to companies’ goals and objectives, and the system is implemented on a continuous cycle.


Chapter 5: Coaching Definition

  • Coaching: One-on-one collaborative relationship in which an individual provides performance-related guidance to an employee.


Chapter 5: Performance Appraisal Definition

  • Performance appraisal: Systematic review and evaluation of job performance.


Chapter 5: Uses of Performance Appraisal

  • Purposes:

    • Personnel decisions: Firing, hiring, raises.

    • Developmental purposes: Identify strengths and weaknesses.

    • Documentation: Prevent lawsuits.


Chapter 5: Well-Designed Appraisal

  • A good appraisal:

    • Well received by ratees.

    • Based on documented behavior.

    • Important performance criteria.

    • Inclusive of perspectives.

    • Forward-looking.


Chapter 5: Research Questions in Performance Appraisal

  • What is the best format or rating scale for performance appraisals?

  • To what extent do rater errors and biases affect the appraisal process?

  • How should raters be trained so they can avoid errors and biases?

  • What major contextual variables affect the appraisal process?

  • How important is the organizational context or culture in the appraisal process?

  • What factors affect how ratees and raters react to performance appraisal?


Chapter 5: Sources of Performance Ratings

  • Traditionally: Supervisors conducted performance appraisals using a top-down approach.

  • Multisource Feedback (360): A method of performance appraisal in which multiple raters at various levels of the organization evaluate a target employee and the employee is provided with feedback from these sources.


Chapter 5: Assumptions in Multisource Feedback

  • Basic assumptions:

    • Participants are happier because they are involved.

    • Multiple raters from different levels overcome bias.

    • Multiple raters bring more additional ratings.


Chapter 5: Upward Appraisal Ratings Definition

  • Upward appraisal ratings: Ratings provided by individuals whose status, in an organizational hierarchy sense, is below the ratee’s.


Chapter 5: Studies in Multisource Feedback

  • Semeijn et al. (2014): Showed different ratings and how perspectives differ in predicting managerial effectiveness.

  • Nurudeen et al. (2015): High percentages of surgeons report feedback accuracy and behavior change.

  • Goldring et al. (2015): Principals had cognitive dissonance when teacher ratings were low.


Chapter 5: Recommendations for Implementing Multisource Feedback

  • Be honest about how ratings will be used.

  • Help employees deal with ratings.

  • Avoid presenting too much information (DeNisi & Kluger, 2000).


Chapter 5: Changes in Telework

  • Telework: Working arrangements in which employees enjoy flexibility in work hours or location (Golden et al., 2009).


Chapter 5: Telework and Performance

  • Golden & Gajendran (2014): Telecommuting has a positive effect on performance.

  • Gajendran et al. (2015): Telecommuting is positively related to task and contextual performance.

  • Giovanis (2018): Found that increased telework results in more productivity.


Chapter 5: Graphic Rating Scales Definition

  • Graphic Rating Scales: The oldest format used, consisting of a number of traits or behaviors.


Chapter 5: Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)

  • BARS: Best known for the painstaking process of development (Smith & Kendall, 1963).

  • Bernardin & Beatty (1984): Created a five-step process for developing BARS.


Chapter 5: Critical Incident Definition

  • Critical Incident: Example of job performance used in behaviorally anchored rating scales or job-analytic approaches.


Chapter 5: Checklists Definition

  • Checklists: Popular format where raters are asked to check off each behavior that an employee exhibits.


Chapter 5: Weighted Checklist Definition

  • Weighted Checklist: A series of items that have been weighted as to importance or effectiveness.


Chapter 5: Forced-Choice Checklist Definition

  • Forced-Choice Checklist: Raters are asked to choose two items from a group of four that best describe the employee.


Chapter 5: Computerized Adaptive Rating Scale (CARS)

  • CARS: Created by Borman to make raters feel better. Provides discriminability with two forced choices.


Chapter 5: Employee Comparison Definition

  • Employee Comparison: Involves the evaluation of ratees with respect to how they compare to other employees.


Chapter 5: Rank-Ordering Definition

  • Rank-Ordering: Employees ranked from best to worst.


Chapter 5: Paired Comparisons Definition

  • Paired Comparisons: Each employee is compared with every other employee.


Chapter 5: Forced-Distribution Definition

  • Forced-Distribution: Raters are instructed to “force” a designated proportion of employees into 5-7 categories.


Chapter 5: Contemporary Trends in Rating Formats

  • Narrative Comments: Performance appraisal often includes narrative comments along with ratings.


Chapter 5: Feedforward Interviews (FFI) Definition

  • FFI: Facilitate positive change by focusing on employees' strengths, rather than weaknesses (Kluger & Nir, 2010).

Chapter 5: Rating Errors

  • Cognitive Processes: Errors can occur during the rating process through observation, encoding, storing, retrieval, and integration of information.


Chapter 5: Halo Effect Definition

  • Halo: Results from a rater's tendency to use their global evaluation of a ratee in making dimension-specific ratings or a rater’s unwillingness to discriminate between independent dimensions of a ratee’s performance.


Chapter 5: True Halo Definition

  • True Halo: Results from accurate intercorrelations among performance dimensions rather than from rating error.


Chapter 5: Distributional Errors Definition

  • Distributional Errors: Rating errors that result from a mismatch between actual and expected rating distributions.


Chapter 5: Leniency Definition

  • Leniency: The rating error that results when 1) the means of one's ratings across ratees are higher than the mean of all ratees across all raters, or 2) the means of one’s ratings are higher than the midpoint of the scale.


Chapter 5: Central Tendency Definition

  • Central Tendency: The tendency to use only the midpoint of the scale in rating one’s employees.


Chapter 5: Severity Definition

  • Severity: The tendency to use only the low end of the scale, giving consistently lower ratings to one’s employees than other raters.


Chapter 5: Recency Error Definition

  • Recency Error: Raters heavily weight their most recent interactions with or observations of the ratee, disregarding past performance.


Chapter 5: First Impression Error Definition

  • First Impression Error: Raters pay an inordinate amount of attention to initial experiences with a ratee.


Chapter 5: Similar-to-Me Error Definition

  • Similar-to-Me Error: Raters tend to give more favorable ratings to ratees who are like themselves.


Chapter 5: Rater Error Training (RET) Definition

  • Rater Error Training: A type of training developed to reduce rater errors by focusing on describing errors like halo and showing raters how to avoid making such errors.


Chapter 5: Frame-of-Reference Training (FOR) Definition

  • Frame-of-Reference Training: Designed to enhance raters' observational and categorization skills to improve rater accuracy by providing a common understanding of performance levels (Bernardin, 1981).


Chapter 5: Behavioral Observation Training (BOT) Definition

  • Behavioral Observation Training: Teaches raters how to observe certain behaviors and avoid behavioral observation errors.


Chapter 5: Rater Goals and Accountability

  • Mero & Motowidlo (1995): Demonstrated that raters held accountable to goals provide ratings consistent with those goals.


Chapter 5: Social-Psychological Context

  • Levy (2018): Context-related topics include accuracy, supervisor-subordinate relationships, organizational politics, trust, and multiple feedback.


Chapter 5: Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory Definition

  • Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Emphasizes that supervisors have different types of relationships with different subordinates.


Chapter 5: Organizational Politics Definition

  • Organizational Politics: Deliberate attempts by individuals to enhance or protect their self-interest when conflicting courses of action are possible (Longenecker).


Chapter 5: Trust and Justice in Appraisals

  • Trust and Justice: The extent to which raters believe that fair and accurate appraisals are made in their organization.


Chapter 5: Participation in Appraisals Definition

  • Participation: Strong positive relationship between participation in the appraisal process and reactions like satisfaction, motivation, and fairness (Cawley, 1998).


Chapter 5: Providing Performance Feedback

  • Feedback Outcomes: Can lead to behavior changes, better performance, increased self-awareness, and increased confidence (Levy, London, Smither, Linderbaum).


Chapter 5: Continuous Employee Development Definition

  • Continuous Employee Development: A cyclical process where employees are motivated to plan and engage in behaviors that benefit their employability on an ongoing basis.


Chapter 5: Legal Issues in Performance Appraisals

  • Legal Issues: It is illegal to discriminate in performance appraisals based on non-performance-related factors (Austin et al., 1995).


Chapter 5: Due Process Metaphor in Appraisals

  • Due Process Metaphor: Includes adequate notice, fair hearing, and judgments based on evidence.


Chapter 5: Physiolytics Definition

  • Physiolytics: Three kinds of analysis: quantifications of movements, working with information efficiently, and analyzing personal "big data."