What are some major factors that distort performance appraisals?
The correct answer and explanation is :
Performance appraisals are essential for assessing an employee’s job performance, but several factors can distort the accuracy and fairness of these evaluations. Here are some major factors that can distort performance appraisals:
- Halo Effect: This occurs when an evaluator’s overall impression of an employee influences their assessment of specific job performance areas. For example, if an employee is highly charismatic, the appraiser might rate their performance positively in all areas, even if they perform poorly in some aspects.
- Leniency or Severity Bias: This is when an evaluator is overly lenient or excessively harsh in their ratings. Leniency bias occurs when an appraiser gives consistently high ratings regardless of actual performance, while severity bias results in unduly low ratings, even when the employee’s performance is satisfactory.
- Central Tendency Bias: This occurs when appraisers avoid extreme ratings and tend to rate most employees as average, regardless of their actual performance. This reduces the usefulness of the appraisal and may not reflect the true variation in employee performance.
- Recency Effect: Evaluators may give disproportionate weight to the most recent events or behaviors, neglecting the employee’s overall performance over the entire review period. This can be especially problematic if the most recent behavior is either particularly good or bad.
- Bias Due to Personal Relationships: Personal relationships between an appraiser and the employee can also lead to biased evaluations. Favoritism or personal animosities may influence the ratings, resulting in an unfair or inaccurate reflection of the employee’s performance.
- Attribution Bias: This occurs when an evaluator attributes an employee’s success or failure to internal or external factors, which can distort the evaluation. For instance, an appraiser might attribute an employee’s failure to a lack of effort, even though external factors played a significant role.
To reduce these biases, organizations can provide training for evaluators, use objective performance metrics, and encourage multiple evaluators to contribute to performance appraisals. Implementing these strategies helps ensure that the evaluation process is fair, consistent, and accurate.