Systemic Bias in Federal Performance Evaluations

Abstract

Individual performance evaluations provide the link between individual and organizational performance. Employees expect to be rated based on their success in meeting their individual performance objectives regardless of their grade or position in the agency or other nonperformance-related criteria. This study examines performance appraisal ratings from three federal agencies (U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency) to learn whether the evaluation processes are free of a systemic bias based on an individual's position in the hierarchy. The analysis suggests that such a bias does exist and that this bias presents challenges to those who design, implement, and use performance evaluations to support their performance management systems and overall organizational performance. The importance of these exploratory findings goes to the question of fairness and equity in performance management systems, both real and perceived, and the impact of such beliefs on employee satisfaction and performance.

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