Hi Amendon,
The typical biases in performance management are:
1. Recency effect: This is typically the case where somebody might have performed very poorly for the last 9 months, but as the appraisal nears, he/she will do something dramatic to impress the boss. The boss overlooks the performance for the whole 9 months but only takes the positive ones.
2. Rewarding only activities but not results:
This is a typical bias that many Indian managers carry. They appreciate people for putting in a lot of hard work (staying late nights in the office/working on holidays) etc. They begin sympathizing with their team members instead of assessing their efficiency in getting the work done within the available resources. In this case, the boss will not even bother to check whether the results were accomplished.
3. Generous versus strict managers:
In an organization, there will be very strict or generous managers. Both are wrong. The performance appraisal (PA) system should ensure that the ratings are normalized across groups/divisions so that a given rating, such as outstanding, is understood and measured the same way across the organization. This is especially crucial when the number of employees is more than 100.
4. Bias against Gender/Race/Religion:
These biases easily set in. Hence, the PA system should be designed in a way that only results are measured, and no other subjective aspects are considered. The more discretion we allow the managers, the more bias we introduce into the system. This is particularly true in multinational companies where the boss may have certain biases.
5. Safe Play:
Most managers do not want to deal with what they consider "dirty work." If a person is not up to the mark, they tend to give safe/average ratings that carry no risk for either the employee or the management. This approach is incorrect. Managers need to objectively assess and communicate accurate feedback to the concerned employee; otherwise, they are unprofessional. A manager's professionalism is truly tested only in such difficult situations.
6. Prejudices about the employee's performance:
Managers may have already formed opinions before even reading the filled-in performance appraisal form (self-appraisal). They are often impatient to finish this task, without objectively assessing all areas. Heavy biases are already ingrained in their evaluations.
Regards,
Srivathsa