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a. They can conduct medical exams after making a contingent offer, to determine
whether an applicant is physically or mentally able to do the job.
II. Training and Development Programs
A. Introduction
1. Skills deteriorate and can become obsolete.
2. U.S. corporations with 100 or more employees spent more than $125 billion in on
formal training in recent years.
B. Types of Training
1. Introduction
a. There are four general skill categories for training—basic, technical,
interpersonal, and problem solving skills—and civility and ethics training.
2. Basic skills
a. One survey of more than 400 human resources professionals found that 40 percent
of employers believe high school graduates lack basic skills in reading
comprehension, writing, and math.
i. As work has become more sophisticated, the need for these basic skills has
grown significantly, leading to a gap between employer demands for skills and
the available skills in the workforce.
ii. The challenge isn’t unique to the United States. It’s a worldwide problem—
from the most developed countries to the least.
iii. For many undeveloped countries, widespread illiteracy means there is almost
no hope of competing in a global economy.
b. Organizations find they must provide basic reading and math skills for their
employees.
i. A literacy audit showed that employees at gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson
needed at least an eighth-grade reading level to do typical workplace tasks.
ii. Yet 30 percent of the company’s 676 workers with no degree scored below
eighth-grade levels in either reading or math.
iii. After the first round of basic-skills classes, company-paid and on company
time, 70 percent of attendees brought their skills up to the target level,
allowing them to do a better job.
iv. They displayed increased abilities to use fractions and decimals, better overall
communication, greater ease in writing and reading charts, graphs, and
bulletin boards—and a significant increase in confidence.
3. Technical skills
a. Most training is directed at upgrading and improving an employee’s technical
skills.
b. Technical training is important for two reasons—new technology and new
structural designs.
c. As organizations flatten their structures, expand their use of teams, and break
down traditional departmental barriers, employees need mastery of a wider
variety of tasks and increased knowledge of how their organization operates.
d. Indian companies have faced a dramatic increase in demand for skilled workers in
areas like engineering for emerging technologies, but many recent engineering
graduates lack up-to-date knowledge required to perform these technical tasks.
e. Companies like Tata and Wipro provide new hires with up to 3 months of training
to ensure they have the knowledge to perform the technical work demanded.
i. In addition, these organizations are attempting to form partnerships with
engineering schools to ensure their curricula meet the needs of contemporary
employers.
4. Problem-solving skills
a. Problem-solving training for managers and other employees can include activities
to sharpen their logic, reasoning, and problem defining skills as well as their
abilities to assess causation, develop and analyze alternatives, and select
solutions.
b. Problem-solving training has become a part of almost every organizational effort
to introduce self-managed teams or implement quality-management programs.
5. Interpersonal skills
a. Almost all employees belong to a work unit.
i. Their work performance depends on their ability to effectively interact with
coworkers and bosses.
b. Some require training in how to be a better listener, how to communicate ideas
more clearly, and how to be a more effective team player.
6. Civility training
a. As human resource managers have become increasingly aware of the effects of
social behavior in the workplace, they have paid more attention to the problems of
incivility, bullying, and abusive supervision in organizations.
i. Examples of incivility include being ignored, being excluded from social
situations, having your reputation undermined in front of others, and
experiencing other actions meant to demean or disparage.
b. Researchers have shown that these forms of negative behavior can decrease
satisfaction, reduce job performance, increase perceptions of unfair treatment,
increase depression, and lead to psychological withdrawal from the workplace.
c. Minimize incivility, bullying, and abusive supervision.
i. One possibility is training specifically targeted to building civility by having
directed conversations about it and supporting the reduction of incivility on an
ongoing process.
d. Following a training intervention based on these principles, coworker civility,
respect, job satisfaction, and management trust have increased, while supervisor
incivility, cynicism, and absences decreased.
e. Thus, the evidence suggests that deliberate interventions to improve the
workplace climate for positive behavior can indeed minimize the problems of
incivility.
7. Ethics training
a. It is common for employees to receive ethics and values guidance incorporated in
new-employee orientations, developmental programs, or as periodic
reinforcements of ethical principles.
b. Critics argue that ethics are based on values, and value systems are fixed at an
early age.
i. Ethics cannot be formally “taught” but must be learned by example.
c. Supporters of ethics training argue that values can be learned and changed after
early childhood.
i. Even if it could not, it helps employees to recognize ethical dilemmas, become
more aware of the ethical issues underlying their actions, and reaffirms an
organization’s expectations.
d. Ethic training also reaffirms an organization’s expectations that members will act
ethically.
i. Individuals who have greater exposure to organizational ethics codes and
ethics training do tend to be more satisfied and perceive their organizations as
more socially responsible, so ethics training does have some positive effects.
C. Training Methods
1. Historically, training meant formal training. It is planned in advance and has a
structured format.
2. Organizations are increasingly relying on informal training.
a. Unstructured, unplanned, and easily adapted to situations and individuals.
b. Most informal training is nothing other than employees helping each other out.
i. They share information and solve work-related problems with one another.
3. Job Training. On-the-job training includes job rotation, apprenticeships, understudy
assignments, and formal mentoring programs.
a. The primary drawback of these methods is that they often disrupt the workplace.
b. Organizations are investing increasingly in off-the-job training—nearly $130
billion annually. What types of training might this include?
4. The most popular is live classroom lectures.
a. It also encompasses videotapes, public seminars, self-study programs, Internet
courses, satellite-beamed television classes, and group activities that use
role-plays and case studies.
5. Computer-Based Training. Recently, e-training (computer-based training) is the
fastest growing training delivery mechanism.
a. E-learning systems emphasize learner control over the pace and content of
instruction, allow e-learners to interact through online communities, and
incorporate other techniques such as simulations and group discussions.
b. Computer-based training that lets learners actively participate in exercises and
quizzes was more effective than traditional classroom instruction.
D. Evaluating Effectiveness
1. The effectiveness of a training program can refer to the level of student satisfaction,
the amount students learn, the extent to which they transfer the material from training
to their jobs, or the financial return on investments in training.
a. Rigorous measurement of multiple training outcomes should be a part of every
training effort.
b. Not all training methods are equally effective.
2. The success of training also depends on the individual.
a. Personality is important: those with an internal locus of control, high
conscientiousness, high cognitive ability, and high self-efficacy learn more.
3. The climate also is important: when trainees believe there are opportunities and
resources to let them apply their newly learned skills, they are more motivated and do
better in training programs.
4. After-training support from supervisors and coworkers has a strong influence on
whether employees transfer their learning into new behavior.
5. An effective training program requires not just teaching the skills but also changing
the work environment to support the trainees.
III. Performance Evaluation
A. What Is Performance?
1. In the past, most organizations assessed only how well employees performed the tasks
listed on a job description, but today’s less hierarchical and more service-oriented
organizations require more.
2. Researchers now recognize three major types of behavior that constitute performance
at work:
a. Task performance
i. Performing the duties and responsibilities that contribute to the production of
a good or service or to administrative tasks.
ii. This includes most of the tasks in a conventional job description.
b. Citizenship
i. Actions that contribute to the psychological environment of the organization,
such as helping others when not required, supporting organizational
objectives, treating coworkers with respect, making constructive suggestions,
and saying positive things about the workplace.
c. Counter productivity
i. Actions that actively damage the organization. These behaviors include
stealing, damaging company property, behaving aggressively toward
coworkers, and taking avoidable absences.
3. Most managers believe good performance means doing well on the first two
dimensions and avoiding the third.
a. A person who does core job tasks very well but is rude and aggressive toward
coworkers is not going to be considered a good employee in most organizations,
and even the most pleasant and upbeat worker who can’t do the main job tasks
well is not going to be a good employee either.
B. Purposes of Performance Evaluation
1. Management uses evaluations for general human resource decisions, such as
promotions, transfers, and terminations.
2. Evaluations identify training and development needs.
3. They pinpoint employee skills and competencies needing development.
4. They provide feedback to employees on how the organization views their performance
and are often the basis for reward allocations including merit pay increases.
5. We will emphasize performance evaluation in its role as a mechanism for providing
feedback and as a determinant of reward allocations.
C. What Do We Evaluate?
1. Introduction
a. The criteria or criterion used to evaluate performance has a major influence on
performance.
i. The three most popular sets of criteria are individual task outcomes,
behaviors, and traits.
2. Individual task outcomes
a. If ends count, rather than means, then management should evaluate an employee’s
task outcomes.
3. Behaviors
a. It is difficult to attribute specific outcomes to the actions of employees in advisory
or support positions or employees whose work assignments are part of a group
effort.
b. We may readily evaluate the group’s performance, but if it is hard to identify the
contribution of each group member, management will often evaluate the
employee’s behavior.
c. Measured behaviors needn’t be limited to those directly related to individual
productivity.
d. As we pointed out in discussing organizational citizenship behavior (see Chapters
1 and 3), helping others, making suggestions for improvements, and volunteering
for extra duties make work groups and organizations more effective and are often
incorporated into evaluations of employee performance.
4. Traits
a. Traits may or may not be highly correlated with positive task outcomes, but only
the naive would ignore the reality that such traits are frequently used in
organizations for assessing performance.
D. Who Should Do the Evaluating?
1. By tradition the task has fallen to managers, because they are held responsible for
their employees’ performance.
2. But others may do the job better.
a. With many of today’s organizations using self-managed teams, telecommuting,
and other organizing devices that distance bosses from employees, the immediate
superior may not be the most reliable judge of an employee’s performance.
b. Peers and even subordinates are being asked to take part in the process, and
employees are participating in their own evaluation.
3. A recent survey found that about half of executives and 53 percent of employees now
have input into their performance evaluations.
4. In most situations, in fact, it is highly advisable to use multiple sources of ratings.
5. Any individual performance rating may say as much about the rater as about the
person being evaluated.
a. By averaging across raters, we can obtain a more reliable, unbiased, and accurate
performance evaluation.
6. The latest approach to performance evaluation is 360-degree evaluations.
a. These provide performance feedback from the employee’s full circle of daily
contacts, from mailroom workers to customers to bosses to peers. (Exhibit 17-2)
b. The number of appraisals can be as few as 3 or 4 or as many as 25. Most
organizations collect 5 to 10 per employee.
c. Some firms using 360-degree programs are Alcoa, DuPont, and Levi Strauss.
d. By relying on feedback from coworkers, customers, and subordinates, these
organizations are hoping to give everyone a sense of participation in the review
process and gain more accurate readings on employee performance.
e. Evidence on the effectiveness of the 360-degree evaluation is mixed. It provides
employees with a wider perspective on their performance, but many organizations
don’t spend the time to train evaluators in giving constructive criticism.
7. Some allow employees to choose the peers and subordinates who evaluates them,
which can artificially inflate feedback.
a. It’s also difficult to reconcile disagreements between rater groups.
b. There is clear evidence that peers tend to give much more lenient ratings that
supervisors or subordinates, and peers also tend to make more errors in appraising
performance.
E. Methods of Performance Evaluation
1. Written essays
a. The simplest method of evaluation is to write a narrative describing an
employee’s strengths, weaknesses, past performance, potential, and suggestions
for improvement.
b. No complex forms or extensive training is required, but the results often reflect
the ability of the writer.
2. Critical incidents
a. Critical incidents focus on those behaviors that are key in making the difference
between executing a job effectively and executing it ineffectively.
b. The appraiser writes down anecdotes that describe what the employee did that
was especially effective or ineffective.
c. A list of critical incidents provides a rich set of examples to discuss with the
employee.
3. Graphic ratings scales
a. Graphic ratings scales refer to a set of performance factors, such as quantity and
quality of work, depth of knowledge, cooperation, loyalty, attendance, honesty,
and initiative.
b. The evaluator then goes down the list and rates each on incremental scales. The
scales typically specify five points.
c. Popular because they are less time-consuming to develop and administer and
allow for quantitative analysis and comparison.
4. Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS)
a. BARS combine major elements from the critical incident and graphic rating scale
approaches.
b. The appraiser rates the employees based on items along a continuum, but the
points are examples of actual behavior.
c. To develop the BARS, participants first contribute specific illustrations of
effective and ineffective behavior, which are translated into a set of performance
dimensions with varying levels of quality.
5. Forced comparisons
a. Forced comparisons evaluate one individual’s performance against the
performance of one or more. It is a relative rather than an absolute measuring
device.
b. The two most popular are group order ranking and individual ranking.
i. The group order ranking requires the evaluator to place employees into a
particular classification, such as top one-fifth or second one-fifth.
ii. The individual ranking approach rank-orders employees from best to worst.
c. One parallel to forced ranking is forced distribution of college grades.
i. As shown in Exhibit 17-3, the average GPA of a Princeton University
undergraduate has gotten much higher over time.
F. Improving Performance Evaluations
1. Introduction
a. The performance evaluation process is a potential minefield.
b. Evaluators can unconsciously inflate evaluations (positive leniency), understate
performance (negative leniency), or allow the assessment of one characteristic to
unduly influence the assessment of others (the halo error).
c. Some appraisers bias their evaluations by unconsciously favoring people who
have qualities and traits similar to their own (the similarity error).
d. And, some evaluators see the evaluation process as a political opportunity to
overtly reward or punish employees they like or dislike.
e. Although no protections guarantee accurate performance evaluations, the
following suggestions can make the process more objective and fair.
2. Use multiple evaluators
a. As the number of evaluators increases, the probability of attaining more accurate
information increases.
b. A set of evaluators judges a performance, the highest and lowest scores are
dropped, and the final performance evaluation is made up from the cumulative
scores of those remaining.
3. Evaluate selectively
a. Evaluate only those areas in which you have some expertise.
b. Appraisers should be as close as possible, in terms of organizational level, to the
individual being evaluated.
4. Train evaluators
a. There is substantial evidence that training evaluators can make them more
accurate raters.
b. Most rater training courses emphasize changing the raters’ frame of reference by
teaching them what to look for, so everyone in the organization defines good
performance in the same way.
c. Another effective training technique is to encourage raters to describe the
employee’s behavior in as much detail as possible.
d. Providing more detail encourages raters to remember more about the employee’s
performance, rather than just acting on their feelings about the employee at the
moment.
5. Provide employees with due process
a. The concept of due process increases the perception that employees are treated
fairly.
b. Three features characterize due process systems:
i. Individuals are provided with adequate notice of what is expected of them.
ii. All relevant evidence is aired in a fair hearing so individuals affected can
respond.
iii. The final decision is based on the evidence and is free from bias.
c. One technique organizations might consider to enhance due process is posting
appraisals online so employees can see their own performance scores exactly as
the supervisor enters them.
i. One company that did so found employees believed rater accountability and
employee participation were higher when appraisal information was available
online prior to appraisal interviews.
ii. It might be that raters were more sensitive to providing accurate ratings when
they knew employees would be able to see their own information directly.
G. Providing Performance Feedback
1. Managers are often uncomfortable discussing weaknesses with employees.
2. In fact, unless pressured by organizational policies and controls, managers are likely
to ignore this responsibility.
a. Even though almost every employee could stand to improve in some areas,
managers fear confrontation when presenting negative feedback.
b. Employees become defensive.
c. Employees tend to have inflated assessments of their own behavior.
3. The solution to the problem is not to ignore it but to train managers to conduct
constructive feedback sessions.
4. An effective review—in which the employee perceives the appraisal as fair, the
manager as sincere, and the climate as constructive—can leave the employee feeling
upbeat, informed about areas needing improvement, and determined to correct them.
a. It probably won’t surprise you that employees in a bad mood are much less likely
to take advice than employees in a good mood.
5. Appraisals should also be as specific as possible.
a. People are most likely to overrate their own performance when asked about
overall job performance, but they can be more objective when feedback is about a
specific area.
b. It’s also hard to figure out how to improve your performance globally—it’s much
easier to improve in specific areas.
c. In addition, the performance review should be a counseling activity more than a
judgment process, best accomplished by allowing it to evolve from the
employee’s own self-evaluation.
H. International Variations in Performance Appraisal
1. Let’s examine performance evaluation globally in the context of four cultural
dimensions: individualism/collectivism, a person’s relationship to the environment,
time orientation, and focus of responsibility.
2. Individual-oriented cultures such as the United States emphasize formal performance
evaluation systems more than informal systems.
a. They advocate written evaluations performed at regular intervals, the results of
which managers share with employees and use in the determination of rewards.
b. On the other hand, the collectivist cultures that dominate Asia and much of Latin
America are characterized by more informal systems—downplaying formal
feedback and disconnecting reward allocations from performance ratings.
c. Some of these differences may be narrowing, however.
3. In Korea, Singapore, and even Japan, the use of performance evaluation has increased
dramatically in the past decade, though not always smoothly or without controversy.
a. One survey of Korean employees revealed that a majority questioned the validity
of their performance evaluation results.
4. One recent study focused on the banking industry found significant differences across
countries in performance appraisal practices.
5. Formal performance appraisals were used more frequently in countries that were high
in assertiveness, high in uncertainty avoidance, and low in in-group collectivism.
a. In other words, assertive countries that see performance as an individual
responsibility, and that desire certainty about where people stand, were more
likely to use formal performance appraisals.
b. On the other hand, in high uncertainty avoidance cultures, performance appraisals
were also used more frequently for communication and development purposes (as
opposed to being used for rewards and promotion).
6. Another study found that individuals who were high in power distance and high in
collectivism tend to give more lenient performance appraisals.
VI. The Leadership Role of HR
A. Introduction
1. HR also plays a key leadership role in nearly all facets of the workplace environment,
from designing and administering benefit programs to conducting attitude surveys to
drafting and enforcing employment policies.
a. HR is on the front lines in managing adversarial employment conditions such as
work-life conflicts, mediations, terminations, and layoffs.
b. HR is on the scene when an employee joins and leaves, and all along the way.
2. HR departments uniquely represent both the employee’s and the company’s
perspective as needed.
a. Companies have only recently begun to recognize the potential for HR to
influence employee performance.
3. Because employers and employees alike benefit from strong human resource
practices, let’s consider some of the leadership functions of human resources.
B. Communicating HR Practices
1. Leadership by HR begins with informing employees about HR practices and
explaining the implications of decisions that might be made around these practices.
2. It is not enough to simply have a practice in place; HR needs to let employees know
about it. When a company successfully communicates how the whole system of HR
practices has been developed and what function this system serves, employees feel
they can control and manage what they get out of work.
3. The evidence supporting the contribution of communication and perception to HR
effectiveness is considerable.
a. For example, one study of different business units within a large food-service
organization found that employee perceptions of HR practices, rated at the
workgroup level, were significant predictors of OCB, commitment, and intention
to remain with the company, but the HR practices led to these positive outcomes
only if employees were aware they were in place.
4. The effectiveness of HR practices also depends on employee attitudes.
a. One review found that HR practices were more likely to lead to positive outcomes
when employees felt motivated.
5. Practices tend to be perceived differently in various business cultures.
a. For example, the use of educational qualifications in screening candidates seems
to be a universal practice, but aside from this, different countries emphasize
different selection techniques.
b. Structured interviews are popular in some countries and nonexistent in others.
6. Communication is the bridge for HR to demonstrate fairness intentions.
C. Designing and Administering Benefit Programs
1. The responsibility for designing and administering an organization’s benefit program
falls to the HR department, with input from executive management.
Ideally, a benefit program should be uniquely suited to the organizational
