AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INFORMATION SEARCH IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Abstract
A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the notion that certain variables inherent in the performance appraisal process may cause a rater to pay more attention to some ratees than to others. The existence of such variables should be of concern to an organization since they will increase the probability that appraisals of some employees' performance will be based on unrepresentative samples of work behavior. The subjects in the study were asked to take the role of a supervisor who had to rate eight employees on each of six job dimensions. The methodology employed was one in which information about the performance of the ratees was presented in the form of a matrix, with ratees represented by rows and job dimensions represented by columns. The subjects were free to choose whatever information they wished in order to arrive at their ratings, subject to a restriction on the total amount of information they could examine. They were free to spend their information search among ratees and job dimensions in any way they pleased. Three independent variables were manipulated in the experiment: the ratee's level of performance, the ratee's consistency of performance, and the importance (purpose) of the performance appraisal. The study utilized a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design with repeated measures on all three factors. The dependent variable was extent of information search, as measured by a frequency count of the number of pieces of information about the performance of each ratee sampled by the rater. Significant main effects were found for all three independent variables. More information search resulted when the ratee's performance level was high, when the ratee's performance was inconsistent and when the appraisal was used as the basis for a promotion decision and for the purpose of giving feedback rather than for feedback purposes alone. A significant interaction was also found between the ratee's performance level and the purpose of the appraisal, with ratees in the high performance-high importance condition receiving the most attention.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Occupational psychology
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