Page 141 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

psychological variables impacting on appraisal 123
Motivation
Just as the appraiser can have a variety of motives in arriving at an assessment of a
subordinate, the latter may also enter the appraisal process with a wide and mixed agenda:
The appraisee may wish to know how he/she is viewed by the manager, without

necessarily being committed to accept it—in other words, his/her orientation may be
chiefly protective and designed to maintain self-esteem.
Following on from this, he/she may wish to present a counter point of view and seek

to persuade the appraiser to accept his/her self-evaluation, to either maintain present
levels of reward or to enhance them; it is an impression management exercise.
The appraisee may wish to use to the appraisal as a springboard to development, getting

his/her manager to support and arrange specific training and development steps.
The appraisee may wish to solve job problems and to improve performance as a result.

It may be important to use the AI as a vehicle for “upward management”, trying to

persuade the appraiser to manage the appraisee in a different manner, or to modify the
performance goals set.
The AI can be an opportunity to express grievances against colleagues or to make the

appraiser aware of personal issues and difficulties.
While many of these needs could be accommodated within an organisational PA
scheme, the degree of emphasis placed on any one or combination of these may vary
from one individual to another or for the same individual on different occasions.
The pattern and strength of an appraisee’s needs may be influenced by a number of
factors, but one of the most important is likely to be the appraisee’s Need for Achievement
or“N.Ach”(McClelland,1961).Thisattributehasbeenfoundtobeasignificantinfluence
in determining many work outcomes, one of which is the level of goal difficulty the
individual prefers (Spangler, 1992; Sagie, Elizur, & Yamauchi, 1996). Cassidy and Lynn
(1989) identify seven elements of N.Ach:
Work Ethic—motivation to achieve based on finding reinforcement in the performance

itself; the desire to work hard.
Acquisitiveness—motivation based on the reinforcing properties of financial reward.

Dominance—the desire to lead or to be in a position of dominance.

Pursuit of Excellence—motivation that finds reward in performing to the best of one’s

ability.
Competitiveness—enjoyment of competition with the aim of winning.

Status Aspiration—motivation reinforced by climbing the social hierarchy.

Mastery—reinforcement gained from success in the face of difficulty.

All, except perhaps Dominance, would seem to have potential relevance to under-
standing an individual’s orientation to appraisal. For example, individuals high on Work
Ethic, Pursuit of Excellence, and Mastery might be expected to have relatively little
need for external recognition or encouragement to do better, though they might welcome
development opportunities and challenging objectives. However, individuals high on
Work Ethic but low on Mastery may feel most comfortable with objectives that empha-
sise amount of work rather than qualitative difficulty. The pay links to appraisal would
obviously be a focus for appraisees high on Acquisitiveness, while emphasising how the
individual is doing relative to peers might be important with those who are Competitive.