Responses to formal performance appraisal feedback: The role of negative affectivity.

This study examined the effects of performance appraisal feedback on job and organizational attitudes of tellers (N=329) in a large international bank. Negative affectivity moderated the link between favorable appraisal feedback and job attitudes. Among the higher rated performers, attitudes were improved 1 month after being notified of favorable appraisal results (Time 2). Improved attitudes persisted 6 months after the performance appraisal (Time 3) among tellers with low negative affectivity but not among those with high negative affectivity. Among the lower rated performers, mean levels of attitudes did not change significantly during the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delay and distortion: Tacit influences on performance appraisal effectiveness.

A laboratory study of performance appraisal delay and distortion (a) investigated the effects of rater gender, performance level, and feedback requirement, and (b) defined feedback delay as the separate components of appraisal delay and feedback session scheduling delay. Subjects were 64 university business students who had at least 6 months of supervisory experience. Female raters delayed longer when conducting performance appraisals and when scheduling feedback sessions with subordinates, and more positively distorted ratings than did male raters. Moderately low performers were evaluated and scheduled for feedback sessions later, and were evaluated with more positive distortion than were moderately high performers. When required to provide feedback, raters delayed longer appraising performance and distorted ratings more positively. Significant interactions suggest that when feedback is required, female raters may delay appraisals, delay scheduling feedback sessions, and more positively distort their ratings of performance, particularly when rating low performers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Escalation bias in performance appraisals: An unintended consequence of supervisor participation in hiring decisions.

The tendency of supervisors to escalate their commitment of a previously expressed opinion by biasing performance ratings was examined in the context of a "real" organization. The hypotheses of the study were (a) that supervisors who participate in a hiring or promotion decision and agree with the eventual decision would positively bias subsequent performance appraisal ratings for that employee, and (b) that supervisors who participate in the original decision but disagree with the decision would bias subsequent performance appraisal ratings in a negative direction. Cases in which the supervisor had not participated in the hiring or promotion decision were used as a control condition. The study was conducted in a large public-sector organization with a sample of 354 clerical employees. Data provide strong support for both hypotheses, demonstrating both positive and negative escalation biases. The implications of these findings for research on escalation and for organizational policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice, stress appraisal, and athletes' attitudes.

In this study the authors examined a model in which procedural justice may serve as an external-situational resource that improves athletes' appraisals of stress and enhances their attitudes toward their team. Eighty-one Israeli male athletes were questioned on the degree of procedural justice employed on their team, how they appraised stress, and their attitudes toward their team. Results showed that higher procedural justice was associated with more positive appraisals of stress as a challenge and greater team loyalty and commitment and that the relationship of procedural justice to team commitment and loyalty was mediated by how stress is appraised. Findings integrate the cognitive-phenomenological model of stress/coping with the relational factors of the procedural justice approach and extend their validity to the field of sport. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How may nonresponse affect findings in organizational surveys? The tendency-to-the-positive effect.

Building on previous findings that those who hold negative attitudes toward the organization have a relatively low likelihood to participate in organizational surveys, the authors examined the impact of nonresponse on the findings of organizational surveys. An artificial example showed that if the likelihood to respond depends on one's standing on response-related variables, the scores on these latter variables will differ from those for the population, whereas between-organization differences in these variables will be underestimated. Consistent with earlier findings, our survey among employees of 96 Dutch home care organizations revealed that employees of high-response organizations reported more positive attitudes toward their work and organization than others. This underlines the importance of obtaining high response rates in organizational studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A trickle-down model of organizational justice: Relating employees' and customers' perceptions of and reactions to fairness.

This study developed and tested a trickle-down model of organizational justice that hypothesized that employees' perceptions of fairness should affect their attitudes toward the organization, subsequently influencing their behaviors toward customers. In turn, customers should interpret these behaviors as signals of fair treatment, causing them to react positively to both the employee and the organization. The model was tested on a sample of 187 instructors and their students. The results revealed that instructors who perceived high distributive and procedural justice reported higher organizational commitment. In turn, their students reported higher levels of instructor effort, prosocial behaviors, and fairness, as well as more positive reactions to the instructor. Overall, the results imply that fair treatment of employees has important organizational consequences because of customers' attitudes and future intentions toward key service employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of appraisal instrument on managerial perceptions of fairness and satisfaction with appraisals from their peers.

Examined whether the type of appraisal instrument (behavioral observation scales [BOS], behaviorally anchored rating scales [BARS], trait scales, or using no formal appraisal instrument) affected satisfaction with a peer appraisal and perceptions of fairness. 91 managers, while working in teams on a simulated task, provided one another with feedback. Satisfaction with peer appraisals was higher when BOS, BARS, or no formal instrument (control) was used to give feedback than was the case with a trait scale. Procedural justice was perceived as higher when either BOS or no instrument was used to give feedback than when the feedback was based on a trait scale. Trait scales were not perceived to be an acceptable instrument by peers for assessing their performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employment discrimination: Authority figures' demographic preferences and followers' affective organizational commitment.

The authors used theories of organizational commitment and obedience to authority to explain employment discrimination. In Study 1, employees participated in an experimental simulation of their work. An organizational authority's demographic preferences led to employment discrimination. As expected, affective organizational commitment moderated this effect, such that it was stronger for more committed employees. In Study 2, another sample of employees completed a survey that included an employment discrimination scenario. A model of linkages from affective organizational commitment to submissiveness to organizational authorities to employment discrimination fit the data well, after controlling for prejudicial attitudes and authoritarianism. Submissiveness to organizational authorities mediated the relationship between affective organizational commitment and employment discrimination. The authors discuss the importance of studying employment discrimination as an organizational and not just an intergroup phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support.

Administered a survey of perceived organizational support (SPOS) to 361 employees (among them postal clerks, financial trust company employees, and manufacturing firm workers) and 71 private high school teachers in 2 studies. Teachers also completed an exchange-ideology questionnaire that measured their belief that work effort should depend on treatment by the organization. Results show that (a) employees in an organization form global beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being, (b) such perceived organizational support reduces absenteeism, and (c) the relation between perceived organizational support and absenteeism is greater for employees with a strong exchange ideology than those with a weak ideology. These findings support the social exchange view that employees' commitment to the organization is strongly influenced by their perception of the organization's commitment to them. Perceived organizational support is assumed to increase the employee's affective attachment to the organization and his/her expectancy that greater effort toward meeting organizational goals will be rewarded. It is concluded that the extent to which these factors increase work effort depends on the strength of the employee's exchange ideology favoring the trade of work effort for material and symbolic benefits. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee perceptions of performance appraisal fairness in two organizations.

Studied the characteristics comprising the appraisal process from the employees' perspective and how those characteristics related to employee perceptions of performance appraisal fairness. Based upon factor analysis of survey data from a total of 397 management and professional employees in 2 large Canadian organizations, 6 characteristics were found to comprise the appraisal process: appraiser's knowledge of the employee's job and performance, opportunity for employee participation, establishment of specific and relevant job goals, discussion of employee development goals, discussion of company and department goals, and feedback on results. The relative importance of these characteristics to overall appraisal fairness ratings was different in the 2 companies. The favorableness of the most recent appraisal was associated with the employee's belief in the overall fairness of the appraisal process in both companies. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The idealized self and the situated self as predictors of employee work behaviors.

This article presents a model integrating research on idealized and situated selves. Our key premise is that identity-relevant behaviors are most likely to occur in the workplace when identities are psychologically central and activating forces make those identities salient. Analysis of matched data from 278 employees, supervisors, and organizational records generally supported our model. Helping identity and industrious work identity were positively associated with related role behaviors only when time-based occupancy in the role of organization member was high. Industrious work identity was positively associated with role behaviors only when reflected appraisals from coworkers were consistent with that identity. In contrast, reflected appraisal of helping identity had an independent relationship with identity-relevant role behaviors. Results demonstrate the importance of theory linking the idealized self and the situated self to understanding identity relations with work performances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes, self-monitoring, and appraisal behaviors.

This study examined the influence of attitudes and self-monitoring on leniency (elevation accuracy) of performance ratings and personnel decisions. In addition, moderating effects of self-monitoring on the relationship between attitudes and accuracy of ratings and decisions were investigated. Attitudes and self-monitoring tendency of 210 managers–professionals were measured, and ratings provided and decisions made by them were used to test 3 sets of hypotheses. Moderated regression and follow-up split-group analyses indicated that self-monitoring moderated the relationship between attitudes toward accurate appraisal and rating accuracy. Self-monitoring significantly influenced rating and decision accuracy such that accuracy declined with increasing level of self-monitoring. Results highlight the influence of rater's personality on appraisal behaviors. Implications of results and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dynamics of threat and challenge appraisals prior to stressful achievement events.

Research on cognitive appraisal of stressful achievement events has emphasized threat appraisals and anxiety. The present research also focused on challenge and positive emotion. Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios of stressful events. Study 2 explored temporal patterns of appraisal and emotion prior to an exam. Compared with threat appraisals, trait and state challenge appraisals were associated with more confident coping expectancies, lower perceptions of threat, higher positive emotion, and more beneficial perceptions of the effects of appraisal and emotion on performance. Beneficial perceptions of state appraisals were associated with higher exam performance. These findings were interpreted in the context of theoretical perspective on the cognitive appraisal of stressful events and the adaptive functions of challenge and positive emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurement and assessment issues in performance appraisal.

Performance appraisal is a topic that is of both theoretical interest and practical importance. As such, it is one of the most researched topics in industrial and organisational psychology. Several measurement issues are central to performance appraisal including: (a) how performance has been measured, (b) how to improve performance appraisal ratings, (c) what is meant by performance, and (d) how the quality of ratings has been defined. Each of these are discussed along with the shortcomings of the extant literature in helping to come to grips with these important issues. Next, some of the new challenges facing performance appraisal, given its historical focus on single individuals being evaluated, are highlighted. In particular, the appraisal problems inherent in the assessment of team performance and the complexities inherent in multisource feedback systems are covered. We conclude with a short discussion of the litigious issues that can arise as a result of poor performance management practises. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of appraisal and emotion related to taking an exam.

Recent research has suggested strong relations between characteristic patterns of appraisal along emotionally relevant dimensions and the experience of specific emotions. However, this work has relied primarily upon ratings of remembered or imagined past events associated with the experience of relatively pure emotions. The present investigation is an attempt to examine cognitive appraisals and emotions during an emotional event in which subjects experience complex emotional blends. Subjects described both their cognitive appraisals and their emotional states just before taking a college midterm examination and, again, immediately after receiving their grades on the exam. Analysis of the ratings revealed that at both times the majority of subjects who felt emotion experienced complex blends of two or more emotions. Correlation and regression analyses indicated that even in the context of these blends, patterns of appraisal, highly similar to those discovered in our earlier research on remembered emotions (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985), characterized the experience of emotions as they were actually felt. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do people do what they say? Further studies on the situational interview.

In Study 1, an interview consisting of 20 situational questions plus 5 past-experience questions was administered to 29 female clerical workers who had worked for the company an average of 6 yrs, and responses were correlated to the observations of supervisors and peers collected by means of an on-the-job appraisal instrument. S responses and appraisals correlated significantly; however, no relationship was found between what Ss said they had done in the past and current appraisals. In Study 2, the predictive validity of the situational interview with 157 entry-level employees (mean age 28.51 yrs) was tested by comparing interview ratings with performance appraisals 3 yrs later. Results show a significant relationship but, since hired Ss performed no differently than the 192 Ss (mean age 29.76 yrs) who were not hired on the situational interview, it had no practical significance. A follow-up study with 29 of the hired Ss who were reinterviewed showed that the original interviewers had not used the situational interview correctly. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance.

The authors proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high levels of informal supervisor and coworker feedback are associated with lower employee perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, these lowered perceptions of politics were proposed to result in higher employee morale (as reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment) and, through morale, to higher levels of task performance and organizational citizenship. The proposed mediational model was supported with empirical results from 150 subordinate-supervisor dyads sampled across a variety of organizations. Higher quality feedback environments were associated with lower perceptions of organizational politics, and morale mediated the relationships between organizational politics and various aspects of work performance. These findings suggest that when employees have greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work, perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational commitment and job performance: It's the nature of the commitment that counts.

In this study, we examined relations between the performance of first-level managers in a large food service company and their affective commitment (i.e., emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization), continuance commitment (i.e., perceived costs associated with leaving the company), and job satisfaction. Commitment and satisfaction scores were correlated with three indexes of performance obtained from the managers' immediate supervisors. As predicted, affective commitment correlated positively and continuance commitment correlated negatively with all three measures of performance. Job satisfaction did not correlate significantly with performance ratings. The findings are interpreted as illustrating the importance of distinguishing between commitment based on desire and commitment based on need and as supporting organizational efforts to foster affective commitment in their employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple uses of performance appraisal: Prevalence and correlates.

Performance appraisal is used in organizations for a variety of purposes. However, little empirical research has been conducted to determine (a) the extent to which performance appraisal is used for each of several purposes in industry, (b) the extent to which appraisal data may be used for multiple and possibly conflicting uses within the same organization, and (c) organizational correlates of these uses. A survey questionnaire designed to answer these questions was mailed to 243 members of Division 14 of the American Psychological Association who were employed in industry. A factor analysis of the 106 completed questionnaires indicated four general uses of information from performance appraisals. The use of performance appraisal to simultaneously make distinctions between and within individuals is common. Canonical correlation analyses indicated that organizational characteristics were significantly related to uses of performance appraisal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What motivates fairness? The role of subordinate assertive behavior on manager's interactional fairness.

This study investigated the proposition that a subordinate's communication style can affect a manager's fairness behavior during decision making and, consequently, can affect the subordinate's attitudes toward the decision, manager, and organization. Two studies were conducted to test these propositions in the context of performance appraisal decisions. First, a laboratory study demonstrated that appraisers engage in more interactionally fair behavior when interacting with an assertive appraisee than with an unassertive appraisee. Second, a quasiexperimental field design showed that training employees on assertiveness, when coupled with self-appraisal, is associated with positive attitudes toward the appraisal and trust in the manager. Implications for understanding the causes of fair behavior and improving the fairness of decisions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)