Answer to Question #273398 in Management for hayyyy

Question

4. After six months in his new position as a manager, Binyam was faced with the task of having to conduct performance evaluation of his staffs. He was worried because he had never done performance evaluation and is not sure how to do it. However, in order to easy his ways, he decides to start with Abinet, Mekdes and Samrawit who were hired by himself. Binyam felt that Abinet is the most outstanding performer in his department. Mekdes is a recent hire in his department and he felt that she is the most cooperative lady he had hired since he became a manager. Samrawit is also a recent hire in his department but he felt that the university that she graduated from mostly produces incompetent students.

b) What perceptual biases (kind of misperceptions) do you expect likely to come into play while Binyam evaluate the performance of Samrawit? Justify your answer.

c) What Binyam needs to do to prevent perceptual biases (misperceptions) in conducting of staff performance evaluation?

Answer 1

a)      

On the above case, the manager is likely to commit the recency bias. It includes focusing on the most recent period instead of the total period when conducting a performance appraisal. This kind of bias also happens when the performance is conducted on the most recent employees instead of comparing the work done by other employees a while ago. This unconscious bias can be attributed to how the mind makes associations, especially for a new manager.

b)     How to prevent perceptual bias

The manager can use the following tactics to prevent the above perceptual bias in performance evaluation.

·        Considering goals and competencies

·        Use of technology to document feedback.

·        Running reviews more frequently.

·        Making peer reviews part of the process