Does comfort matter? The role of rater discomfort on performance ratings.

摘要

Performance ratings are widely used in organizations to inform decisions on pay, promotion, retention, training, and other organizational functions. Given their widespread use and importance, much research has been directed to ascertaining the determinants of performance ratings. The current study investigates how rater discomfort affects the assignment of performance ratings as well as potential mediating and moderating effects of raters' individual differences, namely conscientiousness, agreeableness, and self-efficacy. Participants were given one of two vignettes describing a fictional employee's performance and were asked to assign a rating using a six-item measure of employee performance. Participants also provided responses to measures of conscientiousness, agreeableness, self-efficacy, and rater discomfort. The level of performance developed for either vignette was shown to determine performance ratings. Additionally, raters with lower levels of rater discomfort were found to assign more extreme ratings while raters with high discomfort tended to provide ratings closer to the center of the scale. No other significant mediating or moderating effects were found on the relationship between the level of performance and performance rating. These findings confirm previous research indicating that rater discomfort can have a profound effect on performance ratings and may introduce measurement error due to unintentional rater leniency or other unwanted extraneous factors. Practical implications include the importance of organizational awareness of individual rater's differing comfort level, experience and ability in producing fair and accurate employee performance ratings. As such, it is recommended that organizations identify raters who have high discomfort and are in need of additional training and coaching. Future research should focus on expanding on the role of rater discomfort using information gathered from real employees rather than fictitious employee performance.