"Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications" is designed for evaluators and students who need to develop a commanding knowledge of the evaluation field: its history, theory and standards, models and approaches, procedures, and inclusion of personnel as well as program evaluation. This important book shows how to choose from a growing…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show that in comparison to performance appraisal, "practice enhancement" is offered as a conceptual tool that can be used to develop strategies for reflecting on, communicating changes in and planning for excellence in teaching practice. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual notion of…

We systematically analyze the role of social comparison processes in organizations. Specifically, we describe how social comparison processes have been used to explain six key areas of organizational inquiry: (1) organizational justice, (2) performance appraisal, (3) virtual work environments, (4) affective behavior in the workplace, (5) stress,…

Social psychological research on attitude/belief similarity points to perceived similarity between people as leading to greater attraction and more favorable evaluations. When applied to the area of performance evaluations, organizational research on raters and ratees has focused primarily on the characteristics of the participants of the…

Previous research on performance evaluation systems has failed to take into account user acceptance. Employee acceptance of a behaviorally-based performance appraisal system was assessed in a field experiment contrasting user preference for Behavioral Expectations Scales (BES) versus Behavioral Observation Scales (BOS). Non-union sales associates…

Managers must evaluate the performance, promotability and potential of workers with very different personal characteristics such as age, sex, or race. The research literature indicates that these personal characteristics affect decisions. Furthermore, these characteristics appear to be more salient and to affect decisions in some situations more…

From a cognitive perspective, racial bias is evident when raters weigh job-relevant information differentially as a function of ratee race. The results of studies that have examined this issue have been conflicting. Meta-analytic procedures were used to provide more definitive conclusions as to whether supervisor ratings are more strongly related…

Considers the relationship between coordinate estimates in components analysis and multidimensional scaling. Reports three small Monte Carlo studies comparing nonmetric scaling solutions to components analysis. Results are related to other methodological issues surrounding research on the general ability factor, response tendencies in…

Analyzes the measurement properties of the personnel audit and the relationship of audit to organizational criteria. Nine dimensions summarize 37 audit measures, including predicting executive perceptions of organizational performance and Personnel Function, employee satisfaction, and profitability per capita. Personnel budget allotment per capita…

Polling and comparing the perceptions of principals, office staff, and teachers, the author focuses on the design of his study, which was intended to evaluate behaviors and competencies considered vital to school principals and to cite areas for professional development. Such professional development needs, sought by the large midwestern school…

Historically, training for performance appraisal has focused on the same issues as instrument development--the reduction of psychometric errors in ratings. Efforts were centered around teaching people to use rating scales properly. A review of the literature shows these programs met with mixed success. While a meta-analysis of these data are…

While comments in performance evalutions usually focus on competency, potential, and personality characteristics, discussions of personality are particularly vulnerable to sexual stereotyping. To determine whether gender influences the narrative portion of naval officers' evalutions, narrative information was extracted from the comments section of…

Although previous research on perception of work environment has focused on the underlying structure of the environment, perception of a specific event can indicate whether a three-dimensional model (prediction, understanding, and control) or a two-dimensional model (information and control) accounts for the individual's perception in terms of…

The majority of empirical studies on performance appraisal (PA) systems focus on the search for the perfect form in which subjective traits are replaced by objective and job-relevant, measurable behaviors. Organizations using a PA system to evaluate their employees struggle with issues of implementation, adaptation, and linkage with other human…

This article identifies problems with current practice in evaluating employee performance and presents currently accepted performance appraisal methods (behaviorally anchored rating scales, management by objectives). A research project designed to improve appraisals for school media specialists which was field-tested in four Florida school…