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Grounded in Strategic Leadership Theory (SLT), the exploratory study examined the effects of appraisal frequency on various work-related factors (job satisfaction, perceived board support, and organizational commitment) on executive director's current appraisal experiences. One hundred and sixty-two executive-level professionals in local park and recreation agencies completed an online survey that was used to measure the variables of interest. Results indicated differences in executive directors' job satisfaction, perceived board support, and organizational commitment based on the frequency in which the formal appraisal was administered. Complete and implications for organizations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Public managers' decisions are affected by cognitive biases. For instance, employees' previous year's performance ratings influence new ratings irrespective of actual performance. Nevertheless, experimental knowledge of public managers' cognitive biases is limited, and debiasing techniques have rarely been studied. Using a survey experiment on 1,221 public managers and employees in the United Kingdom, this research (1) replicates two experiments on anchoring to establish empirical generalization across institutional contexts and (2) tests a consider‐the‐opposite debiasing technique. The results indicate that anchoring bias replicates in a different institutional context, although effect sizes differ. Furthermore, a low‐cost, low‐intensity consider‐the‐opposite technique mitigates anchoring bias in this survey experiment. An exploratory subgroup analysis indicates that the effect of the intervention depends on context. The next step is to test this strategy in real‐world settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined the links between leadership style, the use of humor, and two measures of performance. Results indicated that leadership style was moderated by the use of humor in its relationship with individual and unit-level performance. Implications for further research on the use of humor by leaders are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We manipulated transformational and transactional leadership styles and compared them in individual and group task conditions to determine whether they had different impacts on individualists and collectivists performing a brainstorming task. Results showed that collectivists with a transformational leader generated more ideas, but individualists generated more ideas with a transactional leader. Group performance was generally higher than that of individuals working alone. However, contrary to expectations, collectivists generated more ideas that required fundamental organizational changes when working alone [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews salient features of the foregoing articles contained in this special issue of Human Resource Management. The 360-degree feedback movement constitutes an important new technology in the practice of human resource management. To be sure, these papers suggest a hodgepodge of techniques, testimonials, cautions, methodological problems, axes being ground, and a lack of overall cohesion. Even so, the net result is a good snapshot of the current status and hopeful future of this new technology. The net impact of these articles is significant, showing clearly that 360-degree feedback methodology possesses distinct promise for improved success in both individualized and group programs of personal development in the bureaucratic and organizational settings of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated changes in the skill levels of managers which occurred two years following the managers' participation in 360-degree feedback. The major objective was to investigate how skill development, development efforts, and environmental support for development are related. The Management Skills Profile (MSP) was used to measure skills and to give feedback. Of the original 198 managers who received feedback, 48 accepted the opportunity to complete the instrument again two years later. At that time, they also completed a questionnaire surveying what development activities they had completed and the extent to which they received support for development from their supervisor and the organization. The first hypothesis was that, for the group, (a) participants' skills would increase following feedback, and (b) self-other agreement would be greater at Time 2 than at Time 1. This was supported. The second hypothesis was that management skills would be related to later advancement. This also was supported. The third hypothesis was that skill development would be related to both development efforts and environmental support, and that some development activities would be more effective than others. Hypothesis four was that those who put more effort into development (a) would have received at Time 1 ratings which were more favorable and more congruent with their self-ratings, and (b) would have received more environmental support. Hypotheses three and four were only partially supported. The results have implications for what managers can do to develop their skills and how others can support this development. INSET: Table I: Management Skills Profile: Dimensions & Definitions.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This field study examined the feedback-seeking behavior of 387 managers as observed by their superiors, subordinates, and peers. Results suggest that managers' tendency to seek negative feedback increased the accuracy of their understanding about how these feedback sources evaluated their work. Seeking negative feedback further enhanced the three constituencies' opinions of the managers' overall effectiveness. Seeking positive feedback, in contrast, decreased constituents' opinions of the managers' effectiveness. Such results demonstrate the importance of both instrumental and impression-management concerns in the feedback-seeking process and support the proposition that active feedback seeking is a central part of a total process of self-regulation for managerial effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the effects of leader gender and subordinate gender on the manner in which leaders respond to poor performance by subordinates. Analyses revealed that the gender of the leader exerted a major influence on corrective actions. Implications of the results for leadership research and managerial practice and training are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which investigated the impact of a job incumbent's race and sex on managerial performance evaluations. Subjects consist of undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory management course at Michigan State University during the spring semester of 1974. They were presented with a case history and asked to complete a questionnaire. The managerial role of personnel director was selected for the study. Findings of the study suggest that race and sex of job incumbents do not affect performance appraisal.

The article emphasizes the importance of employee reactions in the performance appraisal process for organizational employees in the U.S. as of June 2016. Topics discussed include the importance of a manager's use of appropriate language particularly when delivering performance appraisal ratings, understanding reactions to performance appraisal systems, and the value of reactions in the management and improvement of employee performance.

This study is based on empirical material that was gathered by interviewing managers, at different hierarchic levels of a company, about their work with employee performance appraisal. The analysis, theoretically based on structuration theory (Giddens 1979, 1984), shows how managers describe the meaning of their work and how it is realised through their interactions with other actors in a social process. The present findings help increase our understanding of what could be called the negotiated character of performance appraisal and the complexity of managerial work, as has been sought after in previous research (see, e.g. Willmott 1987; Whittington 1992; Hales 1999). Through this and similar investigations, more attention will hopefully be focused on the manager's role as a social actor, on the question of the accuracy of performance appraisal as well as on viewing organisational management as a social practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to enhance understanding of how relations, behavior and attitude of the executives and contractors to achieving the objectives by energy supplying companies affect the efficiency of the latter's overall development. There is offered a factor-reflexive approach to diagnosing the executives' and contractors' attitude to realizing the tasks of developing the energy supplying companies. This approach includes models to identify and analyze the factors that influenced the change in contractors' behavior based on the combination of expert techniques, correlation and regression analysis and evaluation of the personnel response to organizational, resource and staffing projects development, through accumulating sufficient statistical information based on the enterprise's features, relations and environment. This approach to diagnosing executives' and contractors' response to the implementation of tasks and the resulting changes takes into account the subjective component of their response. Practical implementation of this approach in monitoring the conformity of the development tasks has proven the ability to identify problems from the viewpoint of the task executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vroom-Yetton model of decision-making specifies an appropriate level of employee participation based on an analysis of important situational attributes. However, much of its validity evidence has relied on managers' self-reports of both their behavior and decision outcomes. An experimental study was conducted to test whether performance information can activate leaders' implicit theories of performance and bias leaders' self-ratings of their decision-making behavior. The design was a 2x3 between-groups factorial manipulating leader decision-making style (autocratic or participative) and level of performance feedback (high, low, or none). The data indicated that, when given high performance feedback, leaders' self-ratings are biased by their implicit theories of effective decision-making. This result suggests that studies relying on managers' self-reports are likely to inflate validity estimates of the Vroom-Yetton model. Group members' ratings of leader decision-making behavior were also affected by high performance feedback, but only when they rated leaders who were instructed to use a participative decision-making style. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attitudes of twenty-nine managers toward performance appraisal and toward their organization were used to predict differences in mean ratings and measures of discrimination among ratees and performance dimensions. Substantial multiple correlations were obtained for all three dependent variables (between 32 and 46% of the variance in each measure was explained), and several individual correlations were statistically significant. Raters who showed low levels of confidence in the appraisal system, high levels of discomfort, or high levels of instrumental commitment were more likely to provide ratings that were unusually high or that did not discriminate well among ratees and/or dimensions. Raters who showed higher levels of attitudinal commitment or who perceived more risks associated with distorting ratings tended to provide lower ratings and to discriminate among ratees and/or dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics and associated values influence not only managerial behavior but also managerial success (England and Lee, 1973). Gender socialization theory hypothesizes gender differences in ethics variables whether or not individuals are full time employees; occupational socialization hypothesizes gender similarity in employees. The conflicting hypotheses were investigated using questionnaire responses from a sample of 308 individuals. Analysis of variance and hierarchical regression yielded unexpected results. Although no significant gender differences emerged in individuals lacking full time employment, significant differences existed between employed women and men, with women appearing "more ethical". While occupational socialization predicts an interaction between employment status and gender, these group differences were opposite to those predicted. An implication for the two theories and the current conflicting research support is that these commonly used theories may be of limited usefulness. Some alternative concepts are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicit theories lead individuals to make assumptions about one trait based on their knowledge of another trait. These assumptions can be particularly costly to organizations if they bias performance evaluations. Two studies experimentally examined Implicit Stress Theory (1ST) using a 2 (high and low stressor) x 2 (high and low performance) design across three dependent variables: ratings of effectiveness, commitment, and burnout. Results from a sample of MBA students and a sample of practicing managers showed that employees in a high-stressor job were rated as more effective, committed, and burned out than employees in a low-stressor job when performance was indicated using subjective descriptive anchors. Interactive patterns in the manager sample demonstrated that the biasing effects were more pronounced for low performing employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers' perceptions of subordinates' performance, causes (attributions) of subordinates' performance, and the leader behaviors they employed toward subordinates were examined from the standpoint of cross-situational consistency versus cross-situational specificity. Cross-situational consistency would be indicated if managers' perceptions of performance, attributions, and leader behaviors were stable over different situations, whereas crosssituational specificity would be indicated if these same perceptions indicated reliable variation, as a function of situation. Empirical results for 377 Navy managers provided strong support for crosssituational specificity. Results are discussed in relation to prior research, generated by interactional theory on consistency versus specificity of responses across situations, and in relation to research and developmental needs in leadership, attribution theory, and performance evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of using the behavioral observation scale (BOS) in evaluating employees. The author points out that while Bemardin and Kane present a number of criticisms of BOS as a method of performance appraisal, they do not cite psychometric data to support their criticisms. This note has shown that most of their criticisms are beset by conceptual problems, disagreements between the co-authors, disagreements within each author with what he said here versus what he has said elsewhere, and/or a disregard of previously established empirical findings.

Examines managers' attitudes to the use of upward and the more traditional downward performance appraisal systems. Results of a survey of British managers; Acceptability of upward appraisal; Potential applications.

Explores whether performance appraisal can be considered as a management technique or a social process. Characteristics of appraisal; Behavior of managers performing appraisal; Participatory approach to performance appraisal.

The article presents a study which aims to examine relational judgments created by managers and subordinates. The study revealed that managers with high comparative dominance detected less subordinate desire for involvement in decision making and tended to offer poorer ratings on the performance of their subordinates. It showed that the total dominance of managers was negatively associated to the combined decisional involvement and leader-member exchange factor for subordinates. In addition, total dominance discerns itself by regarding the one-across act to be a lower level of control compared to the one-up move, but a higher level of control than a move of one-down.

This article comments on the article "Top Executives' Reactions to Change," by Tessa Melkonian, published in the present issue of the journal "International Studies of Management & Organization." In her article about the acceptance and rejection of a feedback program among a sample of French executives, Melkonian seeks to understand how a change initiative becomes legitimated among a group of high-ranking individuals and, implicitly, how it can be legitimated by the organizational administration seeking to institute the change. From a neo-institutional theory perspective, her treatment of the subject matter raised a number of questions about the interplay between acceptance or rejection of a workplace practice and the backdrop constituted by the worldview of French executives. Melkonian reports how the French executives in her sample rejected being evaluated in the feedback process in reference to the negative outcomes they might experience in that role, such as revenge by peers or bias by evaluators. Practical rationality invokes a means-ends calculation but does so without an appeal to universalistic decision principles.

The article offer information on the issues related to turnover-performance sensitivity as a part of industrial management. It mentions that the chief executive officers (CEO) can entrench himself by misreporting earnings information therefore the threat of removing a poorly performing CEO does not bring any good. It adds that the analysis shows that a low replacement performance sensitivity is not necessarily a sign of weak or captured boards.

No study has yet examined whether self-esteem moderates the impact of performance-appraisal confidence on work attitudes. In Australia, 103 middle managers working for a variety of organizations, both public and private, completed the 5-item scale of general confidence in performance appraisal. Work attitudes were measured by a scale consisting of three 7-point subscales assessing job involvement, work motivation, and job satisfaction. A stepwise multiple regression was conducted to test whether self-esteem interacts with confidence in determining differences in work attitudes, with the interaction term entered after the main effects of confidence and self-esteem had been assessed. Results suggest that, for these managers, work attitudes are positively affected both by their confidence in performance appraisals and by their self-esteem. Also, the impact of confidence on work attitudes appears to be moderated by self-esteem, with the attitudes of low self-esteem managers affected more by confidence than those of high self-esteem managers.