Pitfalls to Avoid in

Performance Appraisals

Performance Evaluation
Period 2014

What is Performance
Appraisal?

Performance Appraisal
Evaluating an employees current and/or past
performance relative to his or her
performance standards.
The identification, measurement, and
management of human performance in
organizations.

Performance Management
The process organizations use to make sure
employees are working toward and
accomplishing organizational goals.

Appraisal Process
1. Establish and communicate
expectations for performance.
2. Observe and measure individual
performance against standards.
3. Reinforce performance to provide
remedies

Establish and Communicate

Expectations
During the planning process and related
action plans, the manager spells out what
to do in order to accomplish the
department objectives.
This information will indicate what each
employee must do in order to help the
department or work group meet its
objectives.

Observe and Measure Individual

Performance
Performance appraisals should focus on
behavior and results.
Focusing on behavior means the appraisal
should describe specific actions or patterns of
behaving.
Focusing on results means describing the
extent to which the employee has satisfied the
objective for which he or she is responsible.

 Sometimes a manager needs to

appraise personal characteristics, for
example, an employees dependability
or attitude.
While such ratings are necessarily
subjective, the manager/supervisor can try
to base them on observations about
behavior and results.

Reinforce Performance
To keep employees motivated and
informed, the manager needs to tell
them when they are doing something
right, not just when they are making a
mistake.
Reinforce good performance by pointing out
to employees the areas in which their
performance is good.

 In areas where the employee falls short of

the standards, he or she needs to know
how to improve.

Rating Biases
Rating biases are intentional rating
inaccuracies.
Longenecker et al. (1987), The politics of
performance appraisal.
Interviewed executives familiar with rating
performance to investigate the thought processes
they used when rating performance
Revealed that distortion of ratings was an
acceptable means of accomplishing various
ulterior goals.
Accurately rating performance is not as
important as keeping things cooking.

Rating Biases
Seven common reasons for inflating
ratings:

Pain-in-the-neck factor
To get more bonuses/raises for the unit
To promote someone out of the unit
Boost morale
Underdog factor
Dirty laundry factor
Recognition of recent improvements

Rating Biases
Four common reasons for deflating
ratings:
Give a kick in the pants to someone who
is coasting
Show them whos the boss
In an effort to provide justification for
future firing

Problems in Performance
Appraisal

Appraiser discomfort
Lack of objectivity
Halo/horn error
Leniency/strictness
Central tendency
Recent behavior bias
Personal bias
Manipulating the evaluation
Employee anxiety

Appraiser Discomfort
Performance
appraisal process
cuts into
managers time
Experience can be
unpleasant when
employee has not
performed well

Lack of Objectivity
In rating scales method, commonly used
factors such as attitude, appearance,
and personality are difficult to measure

Competencies
What is your measure of
performance?
Customer Service Time to resolve
complaints
ME within 48 hours
EE within 36 hours
E within 24 hours

Rating Errors
Leniency - the tendency to give
ratings that are overly high
Severity - the tendency to give
ratings that are overly low
Central Tendency - the tendency to
use the midpoint of the scale too
often

Halo/Horn Error
Halo error - Occurs when
manager generalizes one positive
performance feature or incident
to all aspects of employee
performance resulting in higher
rating
Horn error - Evaluation error
occurs when manager generalizes
one negative performance
feature or incident to all aspects
of employee performance
resulting in lower rating

Rating Errors
Personal biases - unintentional
discrimination based on age, sex,
race, etc.
Recency effect - the tendency to give
greater weight to recent performance
and lesser weight to earlier
performance.

Recent Behavior Bias

Employees behavior often improves
and productivity tends to rise several
days or weeks before scheduled
evaluation
Only natural for rater to remember
recent behavior more clearly than
actions from more distant past
Maintain records of performance

Personal Bias
(Stereotyping)
Managers allow individual differences
such to affect ratings they give
Effects of stereotyping can influence
appraisals
Other factors Example: mild-mannered
employees may be appraised more
harshly simply because they do not
seriously object to results

Manipulating the
Evaluation
Example: Want to give pay raise to
certain employee. Superior may
give employee an undeserved
high performance evaluation

Employee Anxiety
Evaluation process may
create anxiety for
appraised employee
Opportunities for
promotion, better work
assignments, and
increased compensation
may hinge on results

Emerging Trends: Measuring

the Performance of Teams
Review existing measures to make sure the
team is aware of the measures and has
commitment and responsibilities to achieve
them.
Identify interim checkpoints at which team
progress or achievements can be assessed.
Identify what the team and team members
must do to achieve the desired team-level
results.
Prioritize team goals according to relative
importance.

Tips for Better Performance

Reviews
Start with the raw data
Make sure you are evaluating performance
on appropriate dimensions
Beware of rating biases
Support ratings with written comments
Evaluate several or all of your people at
one time, if possible
Stick with performance and stay away from
inferences about cause
Be consistent across workers