Words for behavioral description in performance appraisals

Words used to describe behavior at work have strong emotional and behavioral implications for those being judged by them. Words used to describe work behavior in assessment of work activities express measurement of performance on appraisal forms as objective or subjective. Work descriptors taken from performance appraisal forms from 47 of 100 hospitals, 35 of 480 management textbooks, and 22 of 150 journal articles were placed in three levels of objective to subjective for frequency of use. More work descriptors were subjective than objective. Work descriptors from journals presented many subjective traits but used more objective than subjective traits while textbooks included many subjective traits as objective descriptors. Use of subjective work descriptors in the journals and textbooks encourages subjective assessment of workers. To be objective performance appraisals must use objective words to describe and assess work in graphic rating forms.