Peer and Upward Appraisals A COMPARISON OF THEIR BENEFITS AND PROBLEMS

This study reports on the positive and negative outcomes that a broad cross section of employees associate with peer and upward appraisals used solely for administrative or developmental purposes. Appraisals used for development were believed more likely to produce positive and less likely to produc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Group & organization studies 1997-06, Vol.22 (2), p.236
Main Authors: Bettenhausen, Kenneth L, Fedor, Donald B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Employees
Employment
Feedback
Peers
Performance appraisal
Subordinates
Supervisors
Total quality
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study reports on the positive and negative outcomes that a broad cross section of employees associate with peer and upward appraisals used solely for administrative or developmental purposes. Appraisals used for development were believed more likely to produce positive and less likely to produce negative outcomes than appraisals used for administration. Upward appraisals were believed to produce more positive outcomes and fewer negative outcomes than par appraisals, mainly because of participants' lower expectations of positive outcomes and higher expectation of negative outcomes for peer appraisal used for administrative purposes. Good coworker relations were also positively related to positive outcomes and negatively related to negative outcomes, but supervisor reletions had no effect on participants' opinions. Experience giving and receiving peer and/or upward reviews had little effect on participants' opinions, except that those with experience generally believed negative outcomes were even less likely to occur when appraisals were used for development than those without experience. Results are discussed in terms of their implication for future empirical work and for the design of 360-degree performance appraisal systems.
ISSN:0364-1082