Understanding Performance Appraisal

A social-psychological model of organizational appraisal processes which emphasizes the goals pursued by raters, ratees and other users of performance appraisal is described in this book. The authors suggest ways in which this goal-oriented perspective might be applied in developing, implementing and evaluating performance appraisal systems.

The model emphasizes the context in which appraisal occurs and takes as a starting point the assumption that many of the apparent shortcomings of performance are, in fact, sensible adaptations to the various requirements, pressures and demands of that context.

Author Biography

   Kevin Murphy holds the Kemmy Chair of Work and Employment Studies, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland.  He earned his PhD in Psychology from Penn State in 1979, has served on the faculties of Rice University, New York University, Penn State and Colorado State University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the American Psychological Society, and the recipient of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s 2004 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.  

He has served as President of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Editor of Journal of Applied Psychology (1991-2002), and is Editor of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice.  He served as Chair of the Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Military Personnel Testing, and has also served on five National Academy of Sciences committees dealing with problems in the workplace.  He is the author of over one hundred and eighty articles and book chapters, and author or editor of eleven books, in areas ranging from psychometrics and statistical analysis to individual differences, performance assessment, gender, and honesty in the workplace.   Jeanette N. Cleveland is a Professor of Industrial & Organizational Psychology at Colorado State University. She earned her B.S. from Occidental College and M.S. and Ph.D from the Pennsylvania State University. She has held faculty positions at Baruch College, The Pennsylvania State University and has served as an external examiner for University of Limerick, Ireland.  She has served elected Program Chair for the Human Resources and Gender & Diversity in Organizations Divisions, Division Chair for HR and GDO, and prior to this to the Executive committees for these Divisions of the Academy of Management. In addition, she served as chair/co-chair for the HR doctoral & junior faculty consortium, scholarly achievement award, Best paper Award, and the GDO Dissertation award, also for the Academy of Management.  She is an elected Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Division 14) and the American Psychological Association. Her research interests include personal and contextual variables regarding work attitudes and performance decisions, workforce diversity issues including older workers and women, and work and family issues. She has served as consulting editor for Journal of Organizational Behavior and has or is currently serving on the editorial boards of Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Management, and International Journal of Management Reviews. She is the Co-Editor for the Applied Psychology Series for Taylor and Francis. Her books include, Understanding performance appraisal: Social, organizational and goal perspectives (with K. Murphy) and Women and men in organizations: Sex and gender issues (with M. Stockdale and K. Murphy, 2000).