Evaluating the effectiveness of performance management: A 30-year integrative conceptual review.

This integrative conceptual review is based on a critical need in the area of performance management (PM), where there remain important unanswered questions about the effectiveness of PM that affect both research and practice. In response, we create a theoretically grounded, comprehensive, and integrative model for understanding and measuring PM effectiveness, comprising multiple categories of evaluative criteria and the underlying mechanisms that link them. We then review more than 30 years (1984-2018) of empirical PM research vis-à-vis this model, leading to conclusions about what the literature has studied and what we do and do not know about PM effectiveness as a result. The final section of this article further elucidates the key "value chains" or mediational paths that explain how and why PM can add value to organizations, framed around three pressing questions with both theoretical and practical importance (How do individual-level outcomes of PM emerge to become unit-level outcomes? How essential are positive reactions to the overall effectiveness of PM? and What is the value of a performance rating?). This discussion culminates in specific propositions for future research and implications for practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

It's all in the attitude: The role of job attitude strength in job attitude-outcome relationships.

Integrating attitude theory with the job attitudes literature, we position job attitude strength (JAS) as a missing yet important theoretical concept in the study of job attitudes. We examine JAS as a moderator of the relationship between job satisfaction and several criteria of interest to organizational scholars (job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, withdrawal). We also examine multiple relevant indicators of JAS (i.e., attitude certainty, attitude extremity, latitude of rejection, and structural consistency), both to shed light on its conceptual nature and to provide meaningful practical direction to researchers interested in incorporating JAS into job attitude research. Data were collected in five field samples (total N = 816). Results support our hypotheses: JAS moderates the relationships between job satisfaction and performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions; in each case, these relationships are significantly stronger for employees with stronger job satisfaction attitudes. However, as expected, not all JAS indicators are equally effective as moderators. We discuss our findings in terms of their theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for the future study of job attitudes.

Can I retake it? Exploring subgroup differences and criterion-related validity in promotion retesting.

Despite recent interest in the practice of allowing job applicants to retest, surprisingly little is known about how retesting affects 2 of the most critical factors on which staffing procedures are evaluated: subgroup differences and criterion-related validity. We examined these important issues in a sample of internal candidates who completed a job-knowledge test for a within-job promotion. This was a useful context for these questions because we had job-performance data on all candidates (N = 403), regardless of whether they passed or failed the promotion test (i.e., there was no direct range restriction). We found that retest effects varied by subgroup, such that females and younger candidates improved more upon retesting than did males and older candidates. There also was some evidence that Black candidates did not improve as much as did candidates from other racial groups. In addition, among candidates who retested, their retest scores were somewhat better predictors of subsequent job performance than were their initial test scores (rs = .38 vs. .27). The overall results suggest that retesting does not negatively affect criterion-related validity and may even enhance it. Furthermore, retesting may reduce the likelihood of adverse impact against some subgroups (e.g., female candidates) but increase the likelihood of adverse impact against other subgroups (e.g., older candidates).

Well-connected leaders: the impact of leaders' social network ties on LMX and members' work attitudes.

We examined the proposition that leaders' social network ties in the larger organization influence the quality of their leader-member exchange (LMX) with their employees, which, in turn, impacts these employees' job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Using multilevel, multisource data from a field study of 184 bank employees nested within 42 branch managers, we found that leaders who had higher quality relationships with their bosses and who were more central in their peer networks were perceived by their subordinates as having greater status in the organization and, therefore, were able to form higher quality relationships with them. Further, the effects of the leaders' perceived status on LMX were stronger when subordinates were less central in their own peer network. Finally, LMX mediated the impact of leaders' perceived status in the organization on subordinates' job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again: understanding race, age, and gender differences in retesting score improvement.

This article explores the intersection of 2 critical and timely concerns in personnel selection-applicant retesting and subgroup differences-by exploring demographic differences in retest effects across multiple assessments. Results from large samples of applicants taking 3 written tests (N = 7,031) and 5 performance tests (N = 2,060) revealed that Whites showed larger retest score improvements than Blacks or Hispanics on several of the assessments. However, the differential improvement of Whites was greater on the written tests than on the performance tests. In addition, women and applicants under 40 years of age showed larger improvements with retesting than did men and applicants over 40. We offer some preliminary theoretical explanations for these demographic differences in retesting gains, including differences in ability, testing attitudes and motivation, and receptivity to feedback. In terms of practical implications, the results suggest that allowing applicants to retake selection tests may, in some cases, exacerbate levels of adverse impact, which can have distinct implications for retesting policy and practices in organizations.

Self-monitoring at work: a motive-based perspective.

It is argued that the recent study of personality in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology is characterized by two limitations: (a) almost complete reliance on the Big Five to the exclusion of other personality variables (most notably, self-monitoring) and (b) insufficient theoretical attention paid to the criteria in work-related personality research. In an attempt to overcome both of these limitations, we review theoretical and empirical evidence for the relevance of self-monitoring in organizational life, with particular attention paid to the criteria grounded in socioanalytic theory of getting along, getting ahead, and making sense. Extant research indicates that high self-monitors are particularly good at getting along (e.g., meeting others' social expectations) and getting ahead (e.g., job performance and leadership emergence), but the evidence is more mixed with regard to making sense. We conclude with a discussion of practical concerns in considering the use of self-monitoring for managerial selection and a research agenda for the future to further elaborate a theory of self-monitoring at work.

Reexamining the job satisfaction-performance relationship: the complexity of attitudes.

The present article argues that organizational researchers tend to adopt an overly simplistic conceptualization and operationalization of job satisfaction (and job attitudes in general). Specifically, past research has failed to examine the affective-cognitive consistency (ACC) of job attitudes and the implications this has for the strength of the attitude and its relationship with behavior (e.g., job performance). Results from Study 1 suggest ACC is a significant moderator of the job satisfaction-job performance relationship, with those employees higher in ACC showing a significantly larger correlation between job satisfaction and performance than those lower in ACC. Study 2 replicated these findings. Implications for the study of job attitudes, limitations of the current studies, and multiple avenues for future research are discussed.

A new frame for frame-of-reference training: enhancing the construct validity of assessment centers.

The authors undertook a comprehensive examination of the construct validity of an assessment center in this study by (a) gathering many different types of evidence to evaluate the strength of the inference between predictor measures and constructs (e.g., reliability, accuracy, convergent and discriminant relationships), (b) introducing a theoretically relevant intervention (frame-of-reference [FOR] training) aimed at improving construct validity, and (c) examining the effect of this intervention on criterion-related validity (something heretofore unexamined in the assessment center literature). Results from 58 assessees and 122 assessors suggested that FOR training was effective at improving the reliability, accuracy, convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity of assessment center ratings. Findings are discussed in terms of implications and future directions for both FOR training and assessment center practice.

Self-monitoring personality at work: a meta-analytic investigation of construct validity.

The validity of self-monitoring personality in organizational settings was examined. Meta-analyses were conducted (136 samples; total N = 23,191) investigating the relationship between self-monitoring personality and work-related variables, as well as the reliability of various self-monitoring measures. Results suggest that self-monitoring has relevance for understanding many organizational concerns, including job performance and leadership emergence. Sample-weighted mean differences favoring male respondents were also noted, suggesting that the sex-related effects for self-monitoring may partially explain noted disparities between men and women at higher organizational levels (i.e., the glass ceiling). Theory building and additional research are needed to better understand the construct-related inferences about self-monitoring personality, especially in terms of the performance, leadership, and attitudes of those at top organizational levels.