Explain why supervisors make good raters in a performance management system, as well as one or two flaws with using supervisor ratings.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The supervisor is probably the person best able to evaluate each subordinate’s performance in light of the organization’s overall objectives. Since the supervisor is probably also responsible for reward (and punishment) decisions such as pay, promotion, and discipline, he or she must be able to tie effective (ineffective) performance to the employment actions taken. Inability to form such linkages between performance and punishment or reward is one of the most serious deficiencies of any performance management system. However, in jobs such as teaching, law enforcement, or sales and in self-managed work teams, the supervisor may observe directly his or her subordinate’s performance only rarely. In addition, performance ratings provided by the supervisor may reflect not only whether an employee is helping advance organizational objectives but also whether the employee is contributing to goals valued by the supervisor, which may or may not be congruent with organizational goals (Hogan & Shelton, 1998). Moreover, if a supervisor has recently received a positive evaluation regarding his or her own performance, he or she is also likely to provide a positive evaluation regarding his or her subordinates (Latham, Budworth, Yanar, & Whyte, 2008). Fortunately, there are several other perspectives that can be used to provide a fuller picture of the individual’s total performance.