Tutorial 9 – Solutions
Group Activity
1. Working in groups, develop a graphic rating scale for the following
jobs: secretary, professor, directory assistance operator. Job
characteristics may include, but not be limited to: Secretary--quantity of
work, frequency of errors, attendance, and initiative; Engineer--initiative,
significance of contribution to the organization, problem-solving skills,
frequency of errors, and communication skills; Directory Assistance
Operator--speed, attendance, accuracy, and friendliness. In each case,
the students should come up with a defining statement that clarifies what
the job characteristic means. (LO 9.4; AACSB: Analytic Skills; Learning
Outcome: Describe the process of performance appraisal and different
appraisal methods)
2. Working 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 use of this method would impact the rating
of their college professors. (LO 9.4; AACSB: Analytic Skills; Learning
Outcome: Describe the process of performance appraisal and different
appraisal methods)
3. Working 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 and watch for
critical incidents. If they find critical incidents that are not based in these
other documents, it will be a good opportunity to go back and review how
all this ties together and that we haven't communicated to the instructor in
the job description these behaviors or tasks that they are now wanting to
rate them on. (LO 9.4; AACSB: Analytic Skills; Learning Outcome:
Describe the process of performance appraisal and different appraisal
methods)
Discussion Questions
1. What is the purpose of a performance appraisal? The purpose of a
performance appraisal is to provide employees with feedback on how they
are doing, as well as give them an opportunity to give feedback. (LO 9.1;
Learning Outcome: Describe the process of performance appraisal and
different appraisal methods)
2. Discuss the pros and cons of at least 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 Rating Scale method is easy to
use, simple, and does not take much time to administer. However,
different supervisors may interpret a numerical rating differently and the
traits rated may or may not relate to performance. (LO 9.4; Learning
Outcome: Describe the process of performance appraisal and different
appraisal methods)
3. 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 all the employees have
been ranked for that trait. Then do the same with the next trait to be rated.
With the paired comparison, for each trait to be rated, the supervisor would
have a sheet with employee names in pairs. For each pair, the supervisor
would circle the one of the two employees that is better in that trait.
Forced Distribution gives the supervisor a set rating scale (such as 1
through 5).
The supervisor is limited to giving a pre-determined
percentage of his or her employees' rating. For example: 15% can get a
1; 20% can get a 2; 30 % can get a 3… and so forth. (LO 9.4; AACSB:
Reflective Thinking Skills; Learning Outcome: Describe the process of
performance
appraisal
and
different
appraisal
methods)
4. Explain in your own words how you would go about developing a
behaviorally anchored rating scale. 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) scale the incidents; and 5) develop a final instrument. (LO
9.4; AACSB: Reflective Thinking Skills; Learning Outcome: Describe the
process of performance appraisal and different appraisal methods)
5. 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; 3) central tendency; 4) leniency or strictness; and 5) bias.
(LO 9.5; Learning Outcome: Describe the process of performance
appraisal and different appraisal methods)
6. Discuss the pros and cons of using different potential raters to
appraise a person's performance. The advantage of using several
raters (either a rating committee, or a combination of peer, supervisor, and
subordinate ratings) is that the ratings tend to be more valid than those of
one individual rater. The negatives might include the time and cost
involved as well as problems with the amount of daily contact that some
raters may not have with the employee being rated. (LO 9.6; Learning
Outcome: Describe the process of performance appraisal and different
appraisal methods)
7. Compare and contrast performance management and performance
appraisal. Performance appraisal means evaluating an employee's
current and/or past performance relative to his or her performance
standards. Performance management is the process that consolidates
goal setting, performance appraisal, and development into a single,
common system, the aim of which is to ensure that the employee's
performance is supporting the company's strategic aims. Performance
management includes practices through which the manager defines the
employee's capabilities, and evaluates and rewards the person's effort.
(LO 9.1; AACSB: Analytic Skills; Learning Outcome: Describe the process
of performance appraisal and different appraisal methods)
8. Answer the question: How would you get the interviewee to talk
during an appraisal interview? There are several techniques that will
help: 1) stop and listen to what the person is saying ... don't be afraid of a
little silence; 2) ask open-ended questions; 3) use prompting statements
like "go on," or "tell me more;" 4) restate the person's last statement as a
question.
(LO 9.7; Learning Outcome: Describe the process of
performance appraisal and different appraisal methods)