Common Performance Appraisal Biases – Common Mistakes by Managers

Common performance appraisal biases – Common mistakes by managers

This article has nothing to do with morality. Because, morality is partly the attitude which we adopt towards the person whom we personally dislike. There is no need to read the title once again to confirm as well. Yes, Managers commit mistakes! Managers are also common human beings like you and me. If you are not agreeing to the fact then probably your self-excusing attitude or morality is not supporting to do so.

Anyway, here are some common mistakes which spoil performance appraisal processes commonly. Here mistakes refer to skewness due to judgement error and bias in the title refers to imprecise misrepresentation of a measurement.

1. Primacy effect: When raters consider the first impression as the basis of their judgement then it is called as primacy effect. Qualities and facts which create the first impression may not be sufficient base for appraisal.
2. Halo effect: Over all tendency of ration a person very high or low.
3. Horn effect: when someone is appraised only base on the negative quality perceived about him. Casual dress in office does not mean casual tendency to work.
4. Lenience Error: When rating is affected or become very strict due to psychological aberration of managers at the time of appraisal then we call it lenience error.
5. Central Tendency: Tendency to rate all employees averagely is also not expected in appraisal.
6. Personal biases: Personal biases due to whispering input of the person sitting next to you and other several beliefs, thought and social background.
7. Spill over effect: The present performance is appraised based on the past performance by considering that Mr. X was good performer in 2015 so he is good performer in 2016 as well.
8. Recency effect: When rating is influenced based on most recent behaviour without paying attention to the behaviour demonstrated during the entire appraisal period.

(Note: I don’t claim myself as the author of this article. I have taken most of the words from the Source: www.managementstudyguide.com)