Judgment Issues and Specific Applications in Organizations

1. Judgment Issues and Specific Applications in Organizations • Employment interviews • Performance evaluation Chapter 5

2. Judgment Issues • Halo effect • The assessment of an individual on one dimension of performance “carries over” to other non-related dimensions and thus dominates the evaluation of the person • Positive --- or “negative halo” (horn)

3. Judgment Issues (cont) • Recency effect • Our evaluation of performance (positive or negative) at the end of the review period dominates the rating for the entire period • Information is easier to retrieve from memory • Similarity error (clone) • Giving better ratings to those who are like you in behavior and/or personality • Spillover effects • Continuing to downgrade an employee for performance errors in prior rating periods

4. Judgment Issues (cont) • Implicit favorite • Start out with a favorite (job candidate, candidate for promotion, etc..) • Options are evaluated using decision criteria biased toward the favorite • Job postings and criteria for the job • Confirmation bias • Tendency to seek confirmatory (supporting) information for what you think is true and neglect the search for disconfirming (unsupporting) information • “This is an A or F student” and grading of essay exams

5. Judgment Issues (cont.) • Contrast effect • An “average” performer will be perceived more favorably if he or she is preceded by below average performers and less favorably if he or she is preceded by an above average performer • Class presentations • Annual performance reviews • Job interviews

6. Training Raters • Rater judgment errors • Identify and describe judgment errors • Recognition of halo errors found to be particularly effective • Recognize that the longer the evaluation time period, the less accurate the ratings • Performance dimensions • Group discussions to identify and describe appropriate and desired dimensions of performance • Unless a behavior affects performance it should not influence ratings

7. Performance Appraisal & the Fair-process Effect • Independent of the amount of the raise, employees who perceive that performance appraisals are conducted in a fair manner, report more satisfaction with pay and more satisfaction with the appraisal itself

8. Attributes of a Fair Performance Appraisal • Specific behavioral objectives (performance criteria) are identified and communicated in advance • Subordinates have an opportunity to provide input in terms of setting the performance objectives • Helps ensure that evaluation criteria are: appropriate, understood, and accepted • Behaviors - not traits- are evaluated • “Reports are finished late” versus “you are lazy”

9. Attributes of a Fair Performance Appraisal (continued) • Appraisal is based upon accurate information • Supervisor diaries • Employee provides a review of activities, accomplishments achieved, and progress made during the period • Appraisals conducted more often (timeliness) • Once a quarter as opposed to once a year