William K. Balzer

Halo and performance appraisal research: A critical examination.

The different conceptual and operational definitions of halo are reviewed, and problems when using halo as a dependent measure in performance rating research and practice are pointed out. Four major points are emphasized: (a) There is no agreed on conceptual definition of halo; (b) the different conceptual definitions of halo are not systematically related to different operational definitions (i.e., measures) of halo; (c) halo measures may be poor indexes of rating quality in that different halo measures are not strongly interrelated and halo measures are not related to measures of rating validity or accuracy; and (d) although halo may be a poor measure of rating quality, it may or may not be an important measure of the rating process

A general measure of work stress: The Stress in General scale.

The present study focused on the development and validation of scores on the Stress in General scale. Three diverse samples of workers (n = 4,322, n = 574, n = 34) provided psychometric and validity evidence. All evidence converged on the existence of two distinct subscales, each of which measured a different aspect of general work stress. The studies also resulted in meaningful patterns of correlations with stressor measures, a physiological measure of chronic stress (blood-pressure reactivity), general job attitude measures, and intentions to quit.

Development of a Compact Measure of Job Satisfaction: The Abridged Job Descriptive Index

The Job Descriptive Index is a popular measure of job satisfaction with five subscales containing 72 items. A national sample (n = 1,534) and a sample of university workers (n = 636) supported development of an abridged version of the Job Descriptive Index (AJDI) containing a total of 25 items. A systematic scale-reduction technique was employed with the first sample to decide which items to retain in each scale. The abridged subscales were then tested in the second sample. Results indicated that the relationships among the five abridged subscales and between the five abridged subscales and other measures were substantially preserved.

Understanding the training needs of department chairs

Little empirical research has focused specifically on the process of identifying comprehensive training needs for department chairs and school directors in public universities. A case study is presented to demonstrate the systematic design and implementation of a program to comprehensively assess the training needs of department chairs and school directors in a public university. Findings from a six‐step process revealed that budgets and funding, faculty issues, legal issues and professional development of chairs and directors were rated as the highest priority training needs. Advantages of this approach, strategies for overcoming obstacles to implementation, potential limitations and avenues for future research are discussed.

Biases in the recording of performance-related information: The effects of initial impression and centrality of the appraisal task☆

Abstract Two variables, initial impression and rating task centrality, were hypothesized to bias the recording of performance-related behavioral incidents used by raters during appraisal. Eighty students viewed two short videotapes of a single lecturer delivering lecture segments and collected behavioral incidents (both good and bad) exhibited by the lecturer using the behavior diary format. Students were randomly assigned to a single experimental condition where both initial performance of the lecturer (good vs poor performance on the first lecture seen) and importance of the behavior collection task (high vs low rating task centrality) were manipulated. The hypothesized effects of initial impression and rating task centrality were only partially demonstrated. In particular, initial impression produced a significant contrast effect in the subsequent recording of behavioral incidents. There was no significant difference in the number of incidents collected under varying conditions of rating task centrality. However, a significant rating task centrality × initial impression interaction showed that while under low rating task centrality subjects in the negative impression condition collected more incidents than subjects in the positive condition, and the opposite effect was found for subjects in the high rating task centrality condition.

Context effects in performance appraisal : a methodological critique and empirical study

The standard design used in research on assimilation and contrast effects in performance appraisal suffers from methodological flaws that preclude unambiguous interpretation of experimental results. The standard design is compared with two other designs that provide more appropriate tests of context effects. Analyses of the alternative designs revealed problems with the positive context manipulation, assimilation effects in the positive context, contrast effects in the negative context, and pretest effects.

Should Faculty Rank Be Included as a Predictor Variable in Studies of Gender Equity in University Faculty Salaries

Many different approaches, almost all of which use some form of regression, have been used to study the issue of gender equity in university faculty salaries. One major point of contention in ail of these approaches is whether faculty rank, which is university conferred, should be included as a predictor variable. Two illustrations are presented to demonstrate how omitting faculty rank as a predictor variable from gender equity studies of university faculty salaries can lead to incorrect conclusions concerning gender discrimination. The first illustration uses hypothetical data constructed so that there is no difference in salary due to gender. However, when faculty rank is not included as a predictor variable in the regression model, there is a significant difference in salary due to gender. The second illustration uses actual data from a study of gender equity in pay at Bowling Green State University. This data set is used to construct a new data set that is totally free of gender bias. When a regression model omitting faculty rank is fit to this gender bias-free data, again a significant difference in salary due to gender is present. Therefore, it is recommended that faculty rank be included as a predictor variable in any model used to study gender equity relating to salary.

Chapter 5 Cognitive Feedback

Publisher Summary Feedback involves an environment that returns some measure of the output of a system back to the system which produced that output. The system is normally a person, but may sometimes be two or more people. This chapter examines cognitive feedback (CFB), or the return of some measure of the output of a persons cognitive processes, to help that person come to terms with the environment. It also describes three major currents in contemporary cognitive psychology. The knowledge to be represented is a complex set of relations called a “policy.” Different people may use different mental representations of knowledge. A fundamental assumption of Brunswiks probabilistic functionalism is that the basic unit of cognition, or knowing, is the relationship. This refers to relationships among cues, between cues and distal objects, between cues and cognitions, and between cognitions and distal objects. This assumption is epitomized in CFB, which provides the person with information describing the relationships: (1) between cues and the criterion, (2) between cues and the persons inferences, and (3) between cognitions and the distal objects.

The Effects of Timing of Leaders' Opinions on Problem-Solving Groups A Field Experiment

A field study was conducted to examine the effect of timing of leader opinions on group problem-solving performance. University residence life teams (N= 19) were asked to solve two typical residence hall problems. Teams were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions in which leaders either (a) stated their opinions immediately after the presentation of the problem or (b) withheld their opinions until later in the discussion. As predicted, groups with leaders who delayed stating their opinions generated significantly more alternative solutions to the problems, and these alternatives were rated more feasible and more likely to be adopted.

Organizational Diagnosis: An Evidence-based Approach

Organizational diagnosis plays a critical role in organizational change initiatives in terms of both choosing appropriate interventions and contributing to readiness-to-change within an organization. Although numerous authors identify diagnosis as an integral component of the change process and many have recommended specific theories and models that should be used in diagnosis, little attention has been given to the diagnostic process itself. The lack of rigour in the diagnostic process and the misdiagnoses that follow are likely to be significant factors in the high failure rate of change initiatives reported in the literature. This article reviews evidence-based diagnosis in engineering and medicine, summarizes the basic steps found in those diagnostic processes, identifies three cause–effect relationships that underlie evidence-based diagnosis, and suggests four spheres of knowledge that must intersect to guide the diagnostic process. Based upon that review, an evidence-based approach is proposed for organizational diagnosis with the goals of bringing more scientific rigour to the diagnostic process, improving the appropriateness of interventions chosen for a given situation and contributing to readiness-to-change among organizational members. Finally, specific steps are recommended for advancing the state of organizational diagnosis in the field of organization development and change.