The purpose of the present investigation was to provide a clearer understanding of how various levels of perceptual correspondence are associated with one another and with performance appraisal. Specifically, the present study focused on the variable of accuracy in an attempt to discover its relative importance to performance appraisal. Also of interest was the relationship between accuracy and agreement.

The purpose of the present study was to determine what, if any, relationship existed between the correspondence of perceptions between superior-subordinate work dyads and the superior's rating of the subordinate's work performance.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) 31 March 2014 / Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) are not exempt from the demands of employee attraction, retention and motivation. As NPOs seek to sustain themselves, the need to manage the performance of employees will continue to be a critical human resource management issue. Performance Appraisals (PAs) are used as tools that help manage the performance of employees; however, there is little understanding by those who participate in their use in NPOs. The purpose of this research is to explore how PAs are used at the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD) and how the employees perceive their use. Using qualitative research methods, primary data was collected through interviews and document analysis. The main findings of the research were that, the CEPD was unclear about its objectives for conducting PAs due to poor implementation of performance management systems and that, employees’ perceive the performance appraisal process as ineffective and irrelevant. There are serious managerial implications for defining the process of conducting appraisals and these include; training, selection of appropriate tools and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder in the process.

This study tests whether criteria variance in five job-facet satisfactions and performance rating explained by selected demographic and personality variables is significantly greater than by the selected demographic variables. This study offers a useful procedure for treating job-satisfaction data and predictor variables and measures the significance in predictability between criteria variance accounted for by variables not generally found in personnel files and those usually found there. It was found that job satisfactions and performance rating differ both in terms of predictability and functional relationships with Predictor Sets.

Prior research has shown that accountability influences decision-making processes (e.g., Tetlock, 1985a). Tetlock's work has found when accountable decision-makers know the view of the person to whom they are accountable, decision-makers will shift their decision towards that known view. In addition, these decision-makers may more frequently rationalize a previous decision. Accountable decision-makers who do not know the view of the person to whom they are accountable have been found to exhibit vigilant and complex cognitive processing. The goal of this study was to apply Tetlock's model of accountability to performance evaluations. Undergraduate raters in accountability conditions expected to meet with one of their actual professors to justify performance ratings. To further investigate the nature of accountability, this study contrasted with Tetlock's work in utilizing two different types of accountability and a decision shift control group. Results of this decision shift control group raised questions about Tetlock’s conclusions about accountability's effects on decision shifts. In addition, reward aspects of accountability may subsume Tetlock's regular operationalization of interpersonal accountability. Overall, raters appeared to focus on the possibility of giving unfavorable ratings. This focus may be of primary importance to accountability effects in performance evaluation. Suggestions for future research and the generalizability of these processes were discussed. / Ph. D.

Previous research exploring the assumptions of process invariance (Walker, 1989) found discrepancies between process and rating outcomes when rater and ratee populations were crossed. Divergent results were attributed to differences in the ratee stimulus performance tapes. The present study attempted to explore how levels of task complexity would moderate the relationship between job knowledge and both information processing and rating accuracy. 123 male subjects were measured on their knowledge of football, and viewed the performance of either offensive tackles (complex task) or running backs (simple task) under directions to either form an impression or remember as much detail as possible. It was expected that observational purpose would moderate the type of information recalled, rating accuracy, and accuracy in recording behavior frequencies in the complex task condition only. Results supported hypotheses only for Cronbaoh-. (19S5) elevation measure pertaining to behavior frequency ratings, and consistent task complexity main effects among accuracy measures for behavior frequency ratings. Some possible limitations and explanations for the present results and some implications for future research are offered. / Ph. D.

Because the act of supervisory feedback can critically affect a subordinate's performance, it is imperative to explicate the various conditions in which the character of feedback is determined. The purpose of the following research was to model the conditions under which supervisors adopt a negative feedback bias (NFB). This bias was first described by Kahneman and Tversky (1973), when they noted that Israeli flight instructors found that praise of exceptionally good piloting was often followed by poorer performance, while criticism of exceptional poor flying was usually followed by improved performance. Thus, the flight instructors came to believe that negative feedback motivated people effectively, while positive feedback appeared ineffective. Of course, supervisors had erred by failing to recognize the natural variation of their students' performance. In general, this error applies primarily to the conditions under which supervisors acquire and interpret information. Two factors were hypothesized as responsible for the emergence of a NFB: (a) limitations caused by opportunity-based supervision, where only a certain amount of subordinate behavior can be sampled at any given moment, and (b) supervisors find it difficult to recognize the natural variation, random fluctuations, and regression to mean processes characteristic of performance governed by common causes (cf. Deming, 1982; Hogarth, 1980 and Kahneman & Tversky, 1973). Results indicated that NFB was an emergent process occurring over time and under conditions where (a) supervisors managed highly inconsistent subordinate performance and (b) supervisors had limited information regarding a subordinate's performance per evaluation episode. Since this experimental approach and set-up is relatively novel, the results are discussed from several conceptual perspectives. Finally, a discussion regarding the ecological approach to feedback research, and the importance of model building and testing is offered. / Ph. D.

This field study investigated the relationship among behavioral and perceptual measures of the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationship and organizational outcome variables. The major purposes of this study were to determine: (1) the extent to which the dyad is the appropriate level of analysis for the examination of manager-subordinate relationships, (2) which objectively observed managerr behaviors are important in defining negotiating latitude, the most commonly used measure of LMX, and (3) whether these behaviors or traditional self-reports of negotiating latitude better predict organizational outcome variables. Two hundred ninety-two manager-subordinate dyads from 18 work groups in a manufacturing plant were observed by trained research assistants and completed questionnaires. Measures included observed manager behaviors defined by the Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index (OSTI), subordinates' absence rates, and managers' and subordinates' perceptions of subordinates' satisfaction (general satisfaction, satisfaction with supervisor, growth satisfaction, work satisfaction, coworker satisfaction), subordinate's intent to withdraw, and negotiating latitude (NL). Within and between analysis I (WABA I) indicated the manager-subordinate dyad as the appropriate level of analysis for NL, general satisfaction, satisfaction with supervisor, growth satisfaction, work satisfaction, coworker satisfaction, and turnover intent. WABA II revealed significant dyadic relationships between NL and all measures of satisfaction as well as turnover intent. Bivariate regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between negotiating latitude and absenteeism. Multiple regression analysis showed manager behaviors (i.e., antecedents) predicted negotiating latitude. However, multiple regression failed to reveal that manager behaviors predicted measures of satisfaction, turnover intent, or absenteeism. Finally, hierarchical regression revealed that manager behaviors (i.e., consequences) added to the predictive ability of negotiating latitude for general satisfaction. However, the addition of manager behaviors to negotiating latitude using hierarchical regression failed to produce a significant change in R-square for any other outcome variables. / Ph. D.

Being held accountable for one's views in an ambiguous situation has been found to increase cognitive processing and reduce possible biases often pervasive in performance appraisals (Tetlock, 1983a). The present study examined the effects of making raters more accountable for their performance ratings through expectations of a supervisory review. Two types of accountability were manipulated. Interpersonal accountability induced subjects to believe that they would receive feedback based on their justifications of their ratings. Reward accountability subjects expected that they would receive a reward based on the quality of their ratings compared to true performance scores. Half of the subjects were also told that the supervisor gave the ratee a negative performance rating. 191 female subjects rated an interviewer's performance after receiving accountability and view manipulations. Results indicated that subjects who received accountability manipulations in conjunction with the view gave more unfavorable ratings and were less accurate on Cronbach's (1955) elevation component of accuracy than no accountability and/or no view groups. Accountable subjects who did not receive the view were expected to increase cognitive processing. These hypotheses pertaining to increases in cognitive complexity and dimensional accuracy were not supported. Although unexpected, interpersonal accountability in conjunction with reward accountability prevented a decrement in processing when given the view. A biased versus unbiased vigilant processing hypothesis was proposed to explain these results. Possible limitations are also proposed as well as implications for future research. / Master of Science

Recent research in organizational psychology has recognized the value of exploring the person-situation interactional perspective as a determinant of work outcomes. The present field study investigated the interaction between a dispositional characteristic (self-leadership) and two situational characteristics (job autonomy and supervisory structure) in determining job satisfaction and employee performance. The situational characteristics accounted for a significant amount of variance for both job satisfaction and performance; however, self-leadership only accounted for significant unique variance in employee performance. Results showed significant effects for the hypothesized interaction for job satisfaction; however, the proposed interaction for performance was not supported. Implications of the current results and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Master of Science