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Inflation of subordinates' performance ratings: main and interactive effects of rater negative affectivity, documentation of work behavior, and appraisal visibility
Author(s) -
Fried Yitzhak,
Levi Ariel S.,
BenDavid Haim Ailan,
Tiegs Robert B.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199907)20:4<431::aid-job933>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - documentation , psychology , visibility , context (archaeology) , social psychology , variety (cybernetics) , performance appraisal , sample (material) , applied psychology , statistics , management , computer science , paleontology , physics , chemistry , mathematics , chromatography , optics , biology , programming language , economics
We hypothesized that raters' tendency to deliberately inflate performance appraisal ratings of subordinates would be associated with rater negative affectivity (NA) and two characteristics of the performance appraisal context: documentation of subordinates' work behaviors and appraisal visibility. We further hypothesized interactions among these variables, such that high‐NA, but not low‐NA raters, would be more likely to inflate ratings under conditions of low documentation and high appraisal visibility. Moreover, we predicted that NA would be associated most strongly with rating inflation when documentation was low and appraisal visibility was high, simultaneously. Results from a sample of 148 supervisors from a variety of organizations supported these hypotheses. We discuss several practical implications of the results and suggest areas for future inquiry. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.