Performance appraisals – some managers are good at performance appraisals and others…well less so. The question is what is that makes the difference? A new study (this research briefing was sent to members in 2017 – apply for membership) has just been published looking at how managers orient themselves towards performance appraisals to see if there is an underlying structure towards the ratings they give and whether discrimination plays a significant part in performance appraisals.
Keywords: performance appraisals, management, appraisal discrimination
- The study
- Conscientiousness
- Level of self-monitoring
- Attitudes towards the organisation
- Beliefs about the appraisal system
- Findings
- Reference
The study looked at 498 managers and their behaviours with performance appraisals. Previous research has found that the level of conscientiousness and self-monitoring the managers displays has a significant impact on their performance doing appraisals.
The study looked at a number of dimensions relating to the manager to see how these factors have an impact on the effectiveness of their performance appraisals and ratings of others. The dimensions of factors the researchers examined were:
- Conscientiousness
- Level of self-monitoring
- Attitudes towards the organisation
- Beliefs about the appraisal system, including
- level of belief about their own appraisal competencies
- beliefs about how the appraisals are being used
- orientation towards the appraisal system.
Raters who are conscientious tend to be more dependable, stick to the rules and are more diligent than those with a lower level of conscientiousness. However, it has also been found that people with high levels of conscientiousness set high standards of performance for others as well.
People who have high levels of self-monitoring tend to examine and control their own behaviours and be concerned with things like fairness and reducing bias. However, it has also been found that people with high levels of self-monitoring may also be susceptible to wanting to be liked and, as a result, of being found to inflate the ratings they give.
Attitudes towards the organisation
Previous studies have found that there are significant links between what a manager thinks about the organisation and their level of citizenship behaviours. Managers with higher levels of a sense of citizenship tend to take greater care with performance appraisals and be concerned with general organisational performance.
Beliefs about the appraisal system
A manager’s beliefs about the appraisal system, their own level of competence as an appraiser and, greater, how the information in the appraisal is going to be used and how trustful or distrustful they are of the appraisal system has a significant impact on the quality of appraisals they tend to conduct.
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The study found that all of the above factors have a significant influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of a manager doing appraisals. Interestingly, they discovered that the manager’s beliefs and attitudes about performance generally about how useful an appraisal system is has the biggest impact on whether a manager is likely to positively or negatively discriminate during performance appraisals. However, they could not discern any underlying structure which accounts for their behaviour. Therefore, the study is more of a confirmatory piece of research which shows that all of the four elements of:
- Conscientiousness
- Level of self-monitoring
- Attitudes towards the organisation
- Beliefs about the appraisal system, including
- level of belief about their own appraisal competencies
- beliefs about how the appraisals are being used
- orientation towards the appraisal system
have a significant impact on the quality of performance appraisals given. This study, whilst failing to find a guiding structure, is useful in that it provides guidance for organisations wanting to improve their appraisal process. In effect, focusing on the appraiser’s levels of conscientiousness and self-monitoring and exploring managers’ attitudes towards the organisation and their beliefs about the appraisal system should help to increase the effectiveness of organisational performance appraisals and reduce levels of discrimination.
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Tziner A and Levy S (2017) Examination of Performance Appraisal Behavior Structure. Front. Psychol. 7:2075. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02075
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