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Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 7
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
Discussion Questions:
9-1: What is the purpose of a performance appraisal?
This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student
9-2: Answer the question, “Who should do the appraising?”
Appraisals by the immediate supervisor are still the heart of most appraisal processes.
However, with more firms using self-managing teams, appraisal of an employee by his or her
peers—peer appraisal—is popular, as is 360-degree feedback. With 360-degree feedback, the
9-3: Discuss the pros and cons of four performance appraisal tools.
The text lists eight different performance appraisal tools. Students might discuss the pros
and cons of any four of these eight. An example of some of the pros and cons is: Graphic
9-4: Explain how you would use the alternation ranking method, the paired comparison
method, and the forced distribution method.
The alternation ranking method would be used by listing all employees to be rated, deciding
who is the best in a trait to be rated, and which employee is the worst. Then decide who is
the second best, and the second worst ... the third best and the third worst ... and so on until
9-5: Explain in your own words how you would go about developing a behaviorally
anchored rating scale.
Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 8
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
Each student should express the five steps in his or her own words. Those five steps are: 1)
generate critical incidents; 2) develop performance dimensions; 3) reallocate incidents; 4)
9-6: Explain the problems to be avoided in appraising performance.
The five main rating scale problems listed in the text are: 1) unclear standards; 2) halo effect;
9-7: Compare and contrast performance management and performance appraisal.
This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student
Individual and Group Activities:
9-8: Working individually or in groups, develop a graphic rating scale for the following
jobs: secretary, professor, bus driver.
Answer should include job characteristics for each position. In each case, the students
9-9: Working individually or in groups, describe the advantages and disadvantages of using
the forced distribution appraisal method for college professors.
Students should review the section on the forced distribution method and describe how the
9-10: Working individually or in groups, develop, over the period of a week, a set of critical
incidents covering the classroom performance of one of your instructors.
If you had the class conduct a job analysis and create a job description for an instructor in
Chapter 3, it would be helpful to refer to that to help identify what kinds of behavior and
tasks the instructor should be doing. This will give a good basis for students to observe
9-11: Appendices A and B at the end of this book list the knowledge someone studying for
the HRCI (Appendix A) or SHRM (Appendix B) certification exam needs to have in
each area of human resource management (such as in Strategic Management and
Workforce Planning). In groups of several students, do four things: (1) review
Appendix A and/or B; (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the
Appendix A and/or B required knowledge lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam
Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 9
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the
HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your team’s
questions in front of the class, so that students in all teams can answer the exam
questions created by the other teams.
9-12: Just about every week, Donald Trump tells another "apprentice," "You're fired."
Review recent (or archived) episodes of Donald Trump's The Apprentice, and answer
this: What performance appraisal system did Mr. Trump use, and do you think it
resulted in valid appraisals? What techniques discussed in this chapter did he seem
to apply? How would you suggest he change his appraisal system to make it more
effective?
Most critics agree that Trump's method of providing performance feedback could be
vastly improved. Lead a discussion by first asking students to identify the methods
Experiential Exercise: Grading the Professor
Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to give you practice in developing and using a
performance appraisal form.
Required Understanding: You are going to develop a performance appraisal form for an
instructor and should therefore be thoroughly familiar with the discussion of performance
appraisals in this chapter.
How to Set up the Exercise/Instructions: Divide the class into groups of four or five students.
9-13: First, based on what you now know about performance appraisal, do you think
Figure 9-1 is an effective scale for appraising instructors? Why? Why not?
9-14: Next, your group should develop its own tool for appraising the performance of an
instructor. Decide which of the appraisal tools (graphic rating scales, alternation
ranking, and so on) you are going to use, and then design the instrument itself.
9-15: Next, have a spokesperson from each group post his or her group’s appraisal tool on
the board. How similar are the tools? Do they all measure the same factors? Which
factor appears most often? Which do you think is the most effective tool on the
board?
9-16: The class should select the top 10 factors from all of the appraisal tools presented to
create what the class perceives to be the most effective tool for appraising the
performance of the instructor.
Application Case: Appraising the Secretaries at Sweetwater U
Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 10
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
9-17: Do you think that the experts' recommendations will be sufficient to get most of the
administrators to fill out the rating forms properly? Why? Why not? What
additional actions (if any) do you think will be necessary?
While controversial, the recommendations would, in fact, encourage administrators to fill the
forms out correctly. Using the more detailed form and not tying the performance ratings to
salary increases would allow the managers to feel more free about rating the secretaries
accurately. There would, however, need to be some strong training sessions (both for
9-18: Do you think that Vice President Winchester would be better off dropping graphic
rating forms, substituting instead one of the other techniques we discussed in this
chapter such as a ranking method? Why or why not?
Certainly other methods could be used. He has already had a taste of what would result if he
went to a forced distribution or other ranking method. A BARS system might be best, but it
9-19: What performance appraisal system would you develop for the secretaries if you
were Rob Winchester? Defend your answer.
If the development costs are not too great, the BARS system would give the strongest
solution to the current situation. The behavioral anchors would make it more difficult to just
Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company – The Performance Appraisal
9-20: Is Jennifer right about the need to evaluate the workers formally? The managers?
Why or why not?
Based on the information presented in the chapter, the students need to determine if the
workers and managers should be evaluated formally or informally, and they need to provide
9-21: Develop a performance appraisal method for the workers and managers in each
store.
The students need to be familiar with thr different appraisal methods discussed in the chapter.
Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 11
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
Hotel Paris: Improving Performance at the Hotel Paris – The New Performance
Management System
9-22: Choose one job, such as front desk clerk. Based on any information you have
(including job descriptions you may have created in other chapters), write a list of
duties, competencies, and performance standards for that chosen job.
Answers should include competencies that will help Hotel Paris become more service
oriented. Use examples from the case itself, such as the “ability to check a guest in or out in
9-23: Based on that, create a performance appraisal form for appraising that job.
There are samples in the text. If possible, before class ask students to bring in sample
performance appraisal forms, either from jobs they have held or samples from the Internet.
My Management Lab
Students can find the following assisted-graded writing questions at mymanagementlab.com.
Answers to these questions are graded against rubrics in the MyLab.
9-24: Discuss the pros and cons of using different potential raters to appraise a person’s
performance.
9-25: As a new supervisor, you’re about to hold your first-ever appraisal interview with one of
your subordinates, someone who has not been performing very well for the past 6 months.
What should you keep in mind about managing the appraisal interview as you begin the
conversation?
Key Terms:
Performance Appraisal – Evaluating an employee’s current and/or past performance relative to
his or her performance standards.
Performance Appraisal Process – A three-step appraisal process involving (1) setting work
standards, (2) assessing the employee’s actual performance relative to those standards, and (3)
providing feedback to the employee with the aim of helping him or her to eliminate performance
deficiencies or to continue to perform above par.
Performance Management and Appraisal 9- 12
Copyright © 2017 Pearson Education, Inc.
Graphic Rating Scale – A scale that lists a number of traits and a range of performance for
each. The employee is then rated by identifying the score that best describes his or her level of
performance for each trait.
Alternation Ranking Method – Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait,
choosing highest, then lowest, until all are ranked.
Paired Comparison Method – Ranking employees by making a chart of all possible pairs of the
employees for each trait and indicating which is the better employee of the pair.
Forced Distribution Method – Similar to grading on a curve; predetermined percentages of
rates are placed in various performance categories.
Critical Incident Method – Keeping a record of uncommonly good or undesirable examples of
an employee's work-related behavior and reviewing it with the employee at predetermined times.
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) – An appraisal method that aims at combining
the benefits of narrative critical incidents and quantified ratings by anchoring a quantified scale
with specific narrative examples of good and poor performance.
Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) – Having supervisors electronically monitor the
amount of computerized data an employee is processing per day, and thereby his or her
performance.
Unclear Standards – An appraisal scale that is too open to interpretation.
Halo Effect – In performance appraisal, the problem that occurs when a supervisor's rating of a
subordinate on one trait biases the rating of that person on other traits.
Central Tendency – A tendency to rate all employees the same way, such as rating them all
average.
Strictness/Leniency – The problem that occurs when a supervisor has a tendency to rate all
subordinates either high or low.
Bias – The tendency to allow individual differences such as age, race, and sex to affect the
appraisal ratings employees receive.
Appraisal Interviews – An interview in which the supervisor and subordinate review the
appraisal and make plans to remedy deficiencies and reinforce strengths.
Performance Management – The continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing
the performance of individuals and teams and aligning their performance with the organization’s
goals.
