CHAPTER 10

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
AND FEEDBACK
Performance Management and Feedback

• Organizations need broader performance measures

to insure that:
– Performance deficiencies are addressed in a timely manner
through employee development programs.
– Employee behaviors are being channeled in the appropriate
direction toward performance of specific objectives.
– Employees are provided with appropriate and specific
feedback to assist with their career development.

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Training and Development

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 Who Evaluates?

• Problems with immediate supervisors conducting

performance evaluations:
– Lacking appropriate information to provide informed feedback
on employee performance.
– Insufficient observation of the employee’s day-to-day work to
validly assess performance.
– Lack of knowledge about the technical dimensions of a
subordinate’s work.
– Lack of training or appreciation for the evaluation process.
– Perceptual errors by supervisors that create bias or lack of
subjectivity in evaluations.

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 Perceptual Errors of Raters

• Halo Effect
– Rater allows a single trait, outcome or consideration to
influence other measures of performance.
• Stereotyping
– Rater makes performance judgments based on employee’s
personal characteristics rather than the employee’s actual
performance.
• Recency Error
– Recent events and behaviors of the employee bias the rater’s
evaluation of the employee’s overall performance.

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 Perceptual Errors of Raters (cont’d)

• Central Tendency Error

– Evaluator avoids higher and lower ends of performance
assessment rating in favor of placing all employees at or near
the middle of the scales.
• Leniency or Strictness Errors
– Evaluator’s tendency is to rate all employees either above
(leniency) or below (strictness) their actual performance level.
• Personal Biases and Organizational Politics
– Have a significant impact on the ratings employees receive
from their supervisors.

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 What to Evaluate?

• Traits Measures
– Are an assessment of how the employee fits with the
organization’s culture, not what the employee actually does.
• Behavior-based measures
– Focus on what an employee does correctly and what the
employee should do differently.
• Results-based measures
– Focus is on accomplishments or outcomes that can be
measured objectively. Problems occur when results
measures are difficult to obtain, outside employee control, or
ignore the means by which the results were obtained.

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 How to Evaluate?

• Absolute Measurement
– Employees are all measured strictly by absolute performance
requirements or standards of their jobs.
• Relative Assessment
– Employees are measured against other employees and
ranked on their distance from the next higher to the next
lower performing employee.
– Ranking allows for comparison of employees but does not
shed light on the distribution of employee performance.

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 Measures of Evaluation

• Graphic Rating Scales

• Weighted Checklists
• Behaviorally Anchored
Rating Scales (BARS)
• Behavioral Observation
Scales (BOS)
• Critical Incident Method
• Management By
Objectives (MBO)

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Behavioral Observation Scale (BOS)

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 Performance Management Systems Guidelines

• Feedback to employees must be specific rather

than general.
• Feedback should come only from credible,
trustworthy sources.
• Feedback should be provided as soon as possible
for maximum benefit.
• Performance measures must be based on clear,
measurable goals.
• The performance system must involve a dialogue
between the employee and the manager.
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 Reading 10.1:
Has 360 Degree Feedback Gone Amok?

• Purposes of 360 Degree feedback systems:

– Furthering management and leadership development.
– Facilitating organizational change and improvement initiatives
that allow the organization to become more open and
participative.
– Expand the formal appraisal system by making feedback
evaluative and linking it more with a manager’s or employee’s
formal performance appraisal.

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 Reading 10.1:
Has 360 Degree Feedback Gone Amok?

• Recommendations for increasing the likelihood

that 360 feedback will benefit the organization:
– Assign an internal consultant or champion to oversee the
process and hold that individual accountable for results.
– Initial implementation should be on a limited basis to allow for
an evaluation of the process using a pre-post test control
group test design.
– Create a focus group to clearly identify effectiveness criteria
measures that the organization values most highly and that
will be used in the measurement process.
– Train all raters to avoid systematic rater errors.

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