Distorted Rating in Appraisal System

Performance ratings are subject to a wide variety of inaccuracies or rating errors. Causes like Halo and Horn effect, the recency error, loose and strict rater and first impression are very much embedded in an organisation. In this article, let me talk on errors caused by belief system, political purpose and personal prejudice as they are very detrimental to an organisation.

First Impression
It is natural when superior made initial judgment about his subordinates but the problem is he ignores or distort the subsequent information so as to support the initial perception. For example a subordinate performed badly in the first quarter but after 4 months was doing extremely well. The unfortunate things is first quarter performance still embedded in the supervisor's mind.

Political Purpose
Appraisers tend to manipulate the evaluation in an attempt to enhance or protect their own interest such as his interest or his group position. In this sense appraisers tend to rate their subordinates based on their own hidden agenda rather than on actual performance.

Appraisers deliberately inflate or deflate subordinates' rating  for various reasons. We have seen the supervisors deflated the rating to pressure the subordinates to quit or to justify a planned firing or to punish a difficult or rebellious subordinates. Deflating of rating is also done in order to making his favourite subordinate, who is just doing mediocre performance becoming the 'top performer' by down-rating the real top performer.

Personal Prejudice
 This refer to the dislikes of the supervisor towards the superior. The supervisor tend to look for the facts that will support his or her earlier judgement rather than the reason behind it albeit the reasons are mere petty and irrelevant.