EFFECTS OF FEEDBACK ACCOUNTABILITY AND SELF-RATING INFORMATION ON EMPLOYEE APPRAISALS: A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION.

The influence of feedback accountability and self-rating information on employee performance appraisals was examined. Undergraduate business student participants assumed the role of ‘supervisor’ and evaluated a fictitious ‘subordinate’ whose performance on a clerical task was either moderately poor or very good. Participants were either given fictitious self-rating information, or no self-rating information, and were told they were expected to provide performance feedback to their ratee, or there was no feedback expectation. As expected, in Study 1 both self-rating information and expected feedback-sharing independently resulted in lenient ratings for poor performance, and the combined effects resulted in the highest ratings. By contrast, results for good performance (Study 2) were not significant. Implications of the findings for human resource management practice and research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]