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Efficiency Ratings and Performance Appraisals in the United States Federal Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

Thomas A. Stetz  and
Todd L. Chmielewski
Thomas A. Stetz*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Service, Hawaii Pacific University
Todd L. Chmielewski
Affiliation:
School of Leadership, St. Thomas University
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Thomas A. Stetz, Department of Public Service, Hawaii Pacific University, Suite 500, 1164 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI 96813. E-mail: tstetz@hpu.edu
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Extract

As industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists and longtime employees, we have developed and implemented appraisal systems and have been subjected to and have subjected others to appraisals. We have thus viewed performance appraisals from all angles, seeing the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. We believe that all of the points discussed by Adler et al. (2016) about retaining or eliminating performance ratings have merit and address the realities of the current state of affairs in performance appraisal practice and research. However, as Wiese and Buckley (1998) point out, organizations survived quite well for centuries without formal appraisal systems, which raises the question, “Why do formal performance appraisal systems exist?” One inescapable yet surprisingly undiscussed reason is that it is a legal and/or regulatory mandate for 4,185,000 U.S. federal government employees (Office of Personnel Management, 2015a). Eliminating performance ratings for these workers would literally require an act of Congress.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 270 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2016 

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