Problems With Performance Appraisal

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Problems with Performance Appraisal

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Characteristics of an Effective Appraisal System • Develop any needed measures of interim and final team and individual performance. • Develop team and individual performance standards so that everyone has a clear understanding of performance expectations. • Determine how the performance management system will work. Who will be the raters? How will feedback be provided?

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Problems With Assessment/Appraisal • Employees lack motivation. • Manager and employee don’t agree on results. • Management reluctance. • No performance documentation.

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Issues With Performance Management • Legal issues. • Untrained raters. • Rater errors. • Rater distortion. • No grievance procedure.

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Poorly Implemented PM Systems • False and misleading information. • Increased turnover. • Wasted time and money. • Damaged relationships.

• Decreased motivation. • Job dissatisfaction. • Risk of litigation. • Unfair standards.

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Performance Management Skills Needed for Effective Appraisers • Communication. • Coaching. • Giving feedback. • Empathy. • Teamwork.

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Factors That Influence Job Performance Ratings • In organizational settings, many factors may influence the willingness of a supervisor to give accurate ratings, including characteristics of supervisors themselves and the rating situation. • Two factors that can affect ratings are: How much the supervisor likes the subordinate and the Supervisor’s mood at the time of the rating.

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Reasons for Intentionally Inflating Ratings • Believe accurate ratings would have a damaging effect on subordinate’s motivation and performance. • Improve employee’s eligibility for merit raises. • Avoid airing department’s “dirty laundry.” • Avoid creating negative permanent record that might haunt employee in the future. • Protect good workers whose performance suffered because of personal problems. • Reward employees displaying great effort even when results were relatively low. • Avoid confrontation with hard-to-manage employees. • Promote a poor or dislike employee up and out of the department.

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Reasons for Intentionally Lowering Ratings • Punish a difficult or rebellious employee. • Encourage a problem employee to quit. • Create a strong record to justify a planned firing. • Minimize the amount of merit increase a subordinate receives. • Comply with an organizational edict that discourages managers from giving high ratings.

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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.

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Rater Bias and Error • When supervisors or other people make performance ratings, they are likely to exhibit rating biases and rating errors. • These biases and errors can be seen in the pattern of ratings, both within the rating forms for individuals and across rating forms for different people.

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Control of Rater Bias and Error • Two approaches have been developed to control and eliminate rater bias and error. One approach is to design better performance appraisal forms that will be resistant to these problems. • The other is to train raters to avoid rating errors.

Rater Training to Reduce Errors • The objective of Rater Error Training is to familiarize raters with rater errors and to teach them to avoid these rating patterns. • In other words, the raters might reduce the number of halo and leniency patterns in their ratings, but those ratings are less accurate in reflecting the true levels of performance.

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Error- Resistant Forms to Assess Performance • The idea is that raters will be able to make more accurate ratings if they focus on specific behaviors rather than traits. • Behaviors are more concrete than traits and so rating them requires less judgment. • Example: It should be easier to rate how often a person is absent from work than to rate the somewhat abstract trait of dependability.

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The Impact of Technology on Performance Appraisal • Technology is having an impact on performance appraisal in two main areas: monitoring of objective productivity and performance management systems. • Computerized employee performance management systems are becoming popular to help managers clarify goals and expectations, provide coaching and feedback, and evaluate performance.

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Rater Training Programs • Content Areas to include • Information • Identifying, Observing, Recording, Evaluating • How to Interact with Employees

• Choices of Training Programs to implement • Rater Error Training • Behavioral Observation • Self-leadership Training

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Content (continued)

C. How to interact with employees when they receive performance information • How to conduct an appraisal interview • How to train, counsel, and coach

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Content

A. Information - how the system works • Reasons for implementing the performance management system • Information • the appraisal form • system mechanics

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Content (continued)

B. Identifying, observing, recording, and evaluating performance • How to identify and rank job activities • How to observe, record, and measure performance • How to minimize rating errors

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Appeals Process (Grievance Management) • Level 1 • HR reviews facts, policies, procedures • HR reports to supervisor/employee • HR attempts to negotiate settlement

• Level 2 • Arbitrator (panel of peers and managers) and/or • High-level manager – final decision

Future Issues and Challenges Continued • Research with some forms of rater training shows promise in improving the accuracy of subjective ratings. Training that focuses on how to observe good job performance and how to transform those observations into accurate appraisals of people’s performance seems likely to be effective.

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