Robert D. Bretz

The Current State of Performance Appraisal Research and Practice: Concerns, Directions, and Implications

On the surface, it is not readily apparent how some performance appraisal research issues inform performance appraisal practice. Because performance appraisal is an applied topic, it is useful to periodically consider the current state of performance research and its relation to performance appraisal practice. This review examines the performance appraisal literature published in both academic and practitioner outlets between 1985 and 1990, briefly discusses the current state of performance appraisal practice, highlights the juxtaposition of research and practice, and suggests directions for further research.

Political Influence Behavior and Career Success

The present study examined an important yet under-investigated topic, the effect of political influence behavior on career success. Drawing from past research on influence behavior and relevant theory from social psychology, the effect of political influence behavior on career success was hypothesized to depend on the type of influence tactic employed. Results from a sample of past graduates of two universities indicated that supervisor-focused tactics, manifesting a strategy of ingratiation, resulted in higher levels of career success while job-focused tactics, manifesting a strategy of self-promotion, resulted in lower levels of success. Implications of the results for the study of careers and career management processes are discussed.

The Role of Human Resource Systems in Job Applicant Decision Processes

Given that organizations make choices about how to manage their human resources, information about the organization is often expressed or implied in the human resource systems that organizations implement. This study proposes that information conveyed through human resource systems affects applicant job choices, that particular systems will be more important to some people than to others, and that job acceptance will be influenced by the degree to which individual characteristics match the content of the system information presented. A policy-capturing design was used to assess the effects of human resource systems within the context of other variables that past research has shown to significantly influence job choices. Results suggested support for the importance of human resource systems in job choice decisions, and further suggested that the fit between individual characteristics and organizational settings described by these systems may be particularly important determinants of job acceptance.

Cognitive Ability and Career Attainment: The Moderating Effects of Early Career Success

Three explanations regarding the prediction that early career success will moderate the relationship between cognitive ability and career attainment are presented along with an empirical examination of this issue. Using longitudinal data provided for 156 managerial, professional, and technical employees, significant moderating effects for an age-graded index of early career success were observed. The relationships between two measures of cognitive ability and later career job level were stronger for individuals identified as below average with respect to early career success than for their above average counterparts. These results agree with the proposition that the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and information is particularly dependent upon cognitive ability for inhviduals competing without the advantages associated with early career signals of high potential.

Comparing traditional and integrative learning methods in organizational training programs.

Previous research and anecdotal reports have suggested that when certain teaching approaches are used, students not only learn more but also experience greater satisfaction with the training process. This study examined the effects of integrative-learning-based (IL) training in relation to lecture-based training. Employees enrolled in a 3-day manufacturing resource planning training course were randomly assigned to either IL or traditional training. Subjects reacted more favorably to IL-based training. Trained subjects performed significantly better than those in a no-treatment control group, but no differences were noted between training interventions.

Report on an Alternative Measure of Affective Disposition

Researchers investigating the dispositional source of job satisfaction often have used negative or positive affectivity to measure affective disposition. The present study tested the validity of an alternative measure of affective disposition which consists of an assessment of affective reactions to neutral stimuli common to everyday life. Results indicated that the measure, termed the Neutral Objects Satisfaction Questionnaire (NOSQ), displayed favorable psychometric properties. Furthermore, the NOSQ may be a better assessment of affective disposition than positive or negative affectivity because it had greater stability over time than one of the most common measures of positive and negative affectivity.

Perceived equity, motivation, and final-offer arbitration in major league baseball.

Final-offer salary arbitration in major league baseball offers a unique institutional arrangement that creates a naturally occurring, non-equivalent-groups, repeated measures research design. The structural arrangements allow for examination of anticipatory expectancy effects and assessment of behavioral responses consistent with equity theory predictions. In addition, equity theory can be tested without the methodological problems inherent in defining the referent other. Performance and mobility were examined for major league baseball position players who won and lost cheir arbitration hearings. Prearbitration performance significantly predicted arbitration outcome. A significant relationship was noted between losing arbitration and postarbitration performance decline. Losers were significantly more likely to change teams and leave major league baseball

College Grade Point Average as a Predictor of Adult Success: A Meta-Analytic Review and Some Additional Evidence

The use of college grade point average (GPA) as a predictor of adult achievement has been debated. Prior reviews of this literature have relied on qualitative analysis to determine the usefulness of GPA in predicting future success. Since qualitative reviews are subject to our human information processing limitations, they often fail to provide definitive conclusions. This research uses meta-analytic techniques to review a substantial subset of the published research on this topic. The results generated are mixed. The overall analysis suggests that no relationship exists while subgroup analyses of success in business and success in teaching suggest that significant relationships do exist. Empirical analysis of an additional data set generally supports the finding of the meta-analysis. Three barely significant relationships are found. Based on the relative weakness of these relationships and confidence in the overall meta-analytic results, it is suggested that if a relationship does exist between GPA and job success it is tenuous at best. Since other more significant predictors of success are available, the use of GPA in this capacity is not recommended.

The Interactive Effects of Gender and Mentoring on Career Attainment: Making the Case for Female Lawyers

The moderating effects of biological gender on the relationships between mentoring and career attainment were explored among legal professionals. Research results indicated that male and female lawyers were equally likely to have senior male mentors. However, senior male mentors were associated with higher career attainment only for female lawyers. Compared to male lawyers with senior male mentors, female lawyers with senior male mentors had higher compensation, higher career progress satisfaction, and were more likely to be partners or senior executives. The authors highlight the importance of simultaneously considering mentor gender and position, when studying the role of mentoring and gender in career attainment, contributing to the literature on the career development of women in the legal profession and in male-dominated professions, in general.