t e n t h e d i t i o n
Gary Dessler
Chapter 9
Part 3 Training and Development
Performance Management
and Appraisal
After studying this chapter,
you should be able to:
Describe the appraisal process.
Develop, evaluate, and administer at least four performance appraisal tools.
Explain and illustrate the problems to avoid in appraising performance.
List and discuss the pros and cons of six appraisal methods.
Perform an effective appraisal interview.
Discuss the pros and cons of using different raters to appraise a person’s performance.
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Comparing Performance Appraisal and Performance Management
Performance appraisal
Evaluating an employee’s current and/or past performance relative to his or her performance standards.
Performance management
The process employers use to make sure employees are working toward organizational goals.
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Why Performance Management?
Increasing use by employers of performance management reflects:
The popularity of the total quality management (TQM) concepts.
The belief that traditional performance appraisals are often not just useless but counterproductive.
The necessity in today’s globally competitive industrial environment for every employee’s efforts to focus on helping the company to achieve its strategic goals.
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An Introduction to Appraising
Performance
Why appraise performance?
Appraisals play an integral role in the employer’s performance management process.
Appraisals help in planning for correcting deficiencies and reinforce things done correctly.
Appraisals, in identifying employee strengths and weaknesses, are useful for career planning
Appraisals affect the employer’s salary raise decisions.
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Classroom Teaching Appraisal By Students
Figure 9–1
Source: Richard I. Miller, Evaluating Faculty for Promotional and Tenure (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1987), pp. 164–165. Copyright © 1987, Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
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Realistic Appraisals
Motivations for soft (less-than-candid) appraisals
The fear of having to hire and train someone new
The unpleasant reaction of the appraisee
A company appraisal process that’s not conducive to candor
Hazards of giving soft appraisals
Employee loses the chance to improve before being forced to change jobs.
Lawsuits arising from dismissals involving inaccurate performance appraisals.
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Continuous improvement
A management philosophy that requires employers to continuously set and relentlessly meet ever-higher quality, cost, delivery, and availability goals by:
Eradicating the seven wastes:
overproduction, defective products, and unnecessary downtime, transportation, processing costs, motion, and inventory.
Requiring each employee to continuously improve his or her own personal performance, from one appraisal period to the next.
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The Components of an Effective
Performance Management Process
Direction sharing
Role clarification
Goal alignment
Developmental goal setting
Ongoing performance monitoring
Ongoing feedback
Coaching and support
Performance assessment (appraisal)
Rewards, recognition, and compensation
Workflow and process control and return
Figure 9–2
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Defining Goals and Work Efforts
Guidelines for effective goals
Assign specific goals
Assign measurable goals
Assign challenging but doable goals
Encourage participation
SMART goals are:
Specific, and clearly state the desired results.
Measurable in answering “how much.”
Attainable, and not too tough or too easy.
Relevant to what’s to be achieved.
Timely in reflecting deadlines and milestones.
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Performance Appraisal Roles
Supervisors
Usually do the actual appraising.
Must be familiar with basic appraisal techniques.
Must understand and avoid problems that can cripple appraisals.
Must know how to conduct appraisals fairly.
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Performance Appraisal Roles (cont’d)
HR department
Serves a policy-making and advisory role.
Provides advice and assistance regarding the appraisal tool to use.
Prepares forms and procedures and insists that all departments use them.
Responsible for training supervisors to improve their appraisal skills.
Responsible for monitoring the system to ensure that appraisal formats and criteria comply with EEO laws and are up to date.
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Steps in Appraising Performance
Defining the job
Making sure that you and your subordinate agree on his or her duties and job standards.
Appraising performance
Comparing your subordinate’s actual performance to the standards that have been set; this usually involves some type of rating form.
Providing feedback
Discussing the subordinate’s performance and progress, and making plans for any development required.
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Designing the Appraisal Tool
What to measure?
Work output (quality and quantity)
Personal competencies
Goal (objective) achievement
How to measure?
Graphic rating scales
Alternation ranking method
MBO
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Performance Appraisal Methods
Graphic rating scale
A scale that lists a number of traits and a range of performance for each that is used to identify the score that best describes an employee’s level of performance for each trait.
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Graphic Rating Scale with Space for Comments
Figure 9–3
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Portion of an Administrative Secretary’s Sample Performance Appraisal Form
Figure 9–4
Source: James Buford Jr., Bettye Burkhalter, and Grover Jacobs, “Link Job Description to Performance Appraisals,” Personnel Journal, June 1988, pp. 135–136.
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Performance Management Outline
Figure 9–5a
Source: .
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Figure 9–5b
Performance Management Outline
(cont’d)
Source: .
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Performance Management Outline (cont’d)
Figure 9–5c
Source: .
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Performance Appraisal Methods (cont’d)
Alternation ranking method
Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait, choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked.
Paired comparison method
Ranking employees by making a chart of all possible pairs of the employees for each trait and indicating which is the better employee of the pair.
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Alternation Ranking Scale
Figure 9–6
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Ranking Employees by the
Paired Comparison Method
Figure 9–7
Note: + means “better than.” − means “worse than.” For each chart, add up the number of 1’s in each column to get the highest-ranked employee.
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Performance Appraisal Methods (cont’d)
Forced distribution method
Similar to grading on a curve; predetermined percentages of ratees are placed in various performance categories.
Example:
15% high performers
20% high-average performers
30% average performers
20% low-average performers
15% low performers
Narrative Forms
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Performance Appraisal Methods (cont’d)
Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS)
An appraisal method that uses quantified scale with specific narrative examples of good and poor performance.
Developing a BARS:
Generate critical incidents
Develop performance dimensions
Reallocate incidents
Scale the incidents
Develop a final instrument
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Performance Appraisal Methods (cont’d)
Advantages of using a BARS
A more accurate gauge
Clearer standards
Feedback
Independent dimensions
Consistency
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Appraisal-Coaching Worksheet
Figure 9–8
Source: Reprinted with permission of the publisher, ; copyright , 2003.
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Examples of Critical Incidents for
an Assistant Plant Manager
Table 9–1
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Example of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale for the Dimension Salesmanship Skill
Figure 9–9
Source:Walter C. Borman, “Behavior Based Rating,” in Ronald A. Berk (ed.), Performance Assessment: Methods and Applications (Baltimore, MD: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1986), p. 103.
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Management by Objectives (MBO)
Involves setting specific measurable goals with each employee and then periodically reviewing the progress made.
Set the organization’s goals.
Set departmental goals.
Discuss departmental goals.
Define expected results (set individual goals).
Performance reviews.
Provide feedback.
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Computerized and Web-Based Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal software programs
Keep notes on subordinates during the year.
Electronically rate employees on a series of performance traits.
Generate written text to support each part of the appraisal.
Electronic performance monitoring (EPM)
Having supervisors electronically monitor the amount of computerized data an employee is processing per day, and thereby his or her performance.
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Potential Rating Scale Appraisal Problems
Unclear standards
An appraisal that is too open to interpretation.
Halo effect
Occurs when a supervisor’s rating of a subordinate on one trait biases the rating of that person on other traits.
Central tendency
A tendency to rate all employees the same way, such as rating them all average.
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A Graphic Rating Scale with Unclear Standards
Table 9–2
Note: For example, what exactly is meant by “good,” “quantity of work,” and so forth?
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Potential Rating Scale Appraisal Problems (cont’d)
Strictness/leniency
The problem that occurs when a supervisor has a tendency to rate all subordinates either high or low.
Bias
The tendency to allow individual differences such as age, race, and sex to affect the appraisal ratings employees receive.
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How to Avoid Appraisal Problems
Learn and understand the potential problems, and the solutions for each.
Use the right appraisal tool. Each tool has its own pros and cons.
Train supervisors to reduce rating errors such as halo, leniency, and central tendency.
Have raters compile positive and negative critical incidents as they occur.
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Who Should Do the Appraising?
The immediate supervisor
Peers
Rating committees
Self-ratings
Subordinates
360-Degree feedback
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Appraisal Tools
Table 9–3
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The Appraisal Interview
Types of appraisal interviews
Satisfactory—Promotable
Satisfactory—Not promotable
Unsatisfactory—Correctable
Unsatisfactory—Uncorrectable
How to conduct the appraisal interview
Talk in terms of objective work data.
Don’t get personal.
Encourage the person to talk.
Don’t tiptoe around.
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Performance Contract
Figure 9–10
Source: David Antonion, “Improving the Performance Management Process Before Discontinuing Performance Appraisals,” Compensation and Benefits Review May–June 1994, p. 33, 34.
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Checklist During the Appraisal Interview
Figure 9–11
Source: Reprinted with permission of the publisher, . Copyright , 2003.
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The Appraisal Interview (cont’d)
How to handle a defensive subordinate
Recognize that defensive behavior is normal.
Never attack a person’s defenses.
Postpone action.
Recognize your own limitations.
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The Appraisal Interview (cont’d)
How to criticize a subordinate
Do it in a manner that lets the person maintain his or her dignity and sense of worth.
Criticize in private, and do it constructively.
Avoid once-a-year “critical broadsides” by giving feedback on a daily basis, so that the formal review contains no surprises.
Never say the person is “always” wrong
Criticism should be objective and free of any personal biases on your part.
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The Appraisal Interview (cont’d)
How to ensure the interview leads to improved performance
Don’t make the subordinate feel threatened during the interview.
Give the subordinate the opportunity to present his or her ideas and feelings and to influence the course of the interview.
Have a helpful and constructive supervisor conduct the interview.
Offer the subordinate the necessary support for development and change.
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The Appraisal Interview (cont’d)
How to handle a formal written warning
Purposes of the written warning
To shake your employee out of bad habits.
Help you defend your rating, both to your own boss and (if needed) to the courts.
Written warnings should:
Identify standards by which employee is judged.
Make clear that employee was aware of the standard.
Specify deficiencies relative to the standard.
Indicates employee’s prior opportunity for correction.
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Creating the Total Performance
Management Process
“What is our strategy and what are our goals?”
“What does this mean for the goals we set for our employees, and for how we train, appraise, promote, and reward them?”
What will be the technological support requirements?
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Information Required for TRW’s Web-Based Performance Management System
Figure 9–12
Source: D. Bradford Neary,“Creating a Company-Wide, Online, Performance Management System: A Case Study at TRW, Inc.,” Human Resource Management 41, no 4 (Winter 2002), p. 495.
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Figure –13
HR Scorecard for Hotel Paris International Corporation*
Note: *(An abbreviated example showing selected HR practices and outcomes aimed at implementing the competitive strategy, “To use superior guest services to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties and thus increase the length of stays and the return rate of guests and thus boost revenues and profitability”)
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Key Terms
performance appraisal
performance management
graphic rating scale
alternation ranking method
paired comparison method
forced distribution method
critical incident method
behaviorally anchored rating
scale (BARS)
management by objectives
(MBO)
electronic performance
monitoring (EPM)
unclear standards
halo effect
central tendency
strictness/leniency
bias
appraisal interview
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