Performance Management Systems and Strategies

BIASES IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

In organizations, performance appraisal often suffers from the crisis of errors or biases. Such errors or biases can be primarily attributed to the lack of objectivity of the raters or the assessors. Organizations need to reduce such errors, else the purpose of performance appraisal gets defeated. Broadly, we can categorize performance errors/biases as follows:

• The halo effect and horn effect.
• Leniency error (loose rater).
• The error of strictness (tight rater).
• The central tendency error.
• The recency effect.
• The contrast error.
• The similarity (similar-to-me) effect.

The Halo and Horn Effect

Solomonson and Lance (1997) defined the halo effect as ‘the influence of a rater's general impression on ratings of specific ...