Page 136 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

118 appraisal: an individual psychological perspective
The majority of organisations still report being dissatisfied with their appraisal systems
(Fletcher, 1997a) for a variety of reasons. The explanation for this lack of impact of what
has often been research of high technical quality is perhaps to be found in some of the
underpinning assumptions. Hogan (1987) suggests that much of the work has treated
appraisers as faulty but motivationally neutral elements of the appraisal process and has
concentrated on improving these faults with improved rating scale formats and training.
Other writers, too, have identified this implicit picture of the appraiser (e.g. Longenecker
& Ludwig, 1990; Tziner, Latham, Price, & Haccoun, 1996) and criticised it for failing
to take account of the dynamic, motivational context in which appraisal takes place. In
other words, the assessments made and other aspects of what goes on in an appraisal
process have relatively little to do with issues of “accuracy” per se.
Even the organisational justice research has its limitations. While certainly grounded
in the realities of organisational life, it provides a somewhat broad-brush approach to un-
derstanding what goes on in appraisal. The meta-analysis reported by Cawley, Keeping
and Levy (1998) makes the useful distinction between instrumental participation—
which is participation for the purpose of influencing an end result—and value-expressive
participation—participation for the sake of having one’s voice heard. They found that the
latter had a stronger relationship with reaction criteria than did the former. Participation
is without doubt important in a number of ways in appraisal, including at the outset in
developing the scheme (Silverman & Wexley, 1984), and it feeds in to perceptions of
procedural justice. But it has been found that candidates’ views of procedural justice
in a selection context changed adversely when a rejection decision was communicated
(Cunningham-Snell, Anderson, Fletcher, & Gibb, 1998). It can be argued, therefore, that
procedural justice perceptions are themselves subject to the influence of deeper psycho-
logical reactions. In addition, they are likely to be impacted by individual and cultural
differences (see below).
Perhaps, rather surprisingly, one key element of the appraisal process has been rela-
tively neglected by research in recent years, and that is the appraisal interview (AI) itself.
Most PA systems require the line manager to hold an interview with the person appraised
to discuss the assessment made, be it against objectives or on competency dimensions
or both. Although there are numerous “how to” books giving advice on the handling of
the AI, little of the content could claim a strong research base as this does not seem to
exist. Yet as Kikoski and Litterer (1983, p. 33) point out, the AI is the point of delivery
of PA, and in their view is “the Achilles’ heel of the entire process”. Some of the earlier
writers and researchers in the field did look very specifically at what went on in the AI
(e.g. Maier, 1958; Meyer, Kay, & French, 1965; Kay, Meyer, & French, 1965; Rothaus,
Morton, & Hanson, 1965; Burke & Wilcox, 1969; Burke, Weitzel, & Weir, 1978; Greller,
1975; Nemeroff & Wexley, 1979) but this has been a less popular focus for investigation
since. Given that this is the face-to-face interaction element in the PA process, and much
is likely to depend on it, the paucity of work done—in marked contrast to the selection
interview—is regrettable. The methodological difficulties in studying the AI directly
may be partly to blame. However, organisational psychologists preferring to stay within
their comfort zone of measurement issues is possibly a (less excusable) factor.
The remainder of the present chapter will seek to address some of the imbalances
in the academic literature by examining PA in terms of the psychological orientations
of the appraiser and the appraisee, rather than from an organisational, procedural or
psychometric standpoint. It will outline some of the main psychological variables that
appeartobeimportantintheappraisalprocess,andinparticularintheappraisalinterview,