In addition to being normative, most rating scales focus on traits or competencies rather than specific behavior, performance or outcomes. Thus, the normative statement I examined above, “This person conveys her ideas in an enthusiastic and persuasive manner,” concerns an enduring trait or competency. It doesn’t concern a specific behavior or the employee’s performance in a specific organizational setting; rather it concerns the effectiveness with which the employee conveys her ideas in most settings.
This type of rating scale is often easy for a rater to complete; however, it is highly susceptible to the psychometric problems I previously listed: leniency, central tendency, halo and so forth. A trait-based rating also fails to consider the external variables that impact on an employee’s performance. To what extent is the failure of an employee to be enthusiastic or persuasive a result of the organization’s depressing climate or the lack of opportunity for this employee to be in a setting where she is being taken seriously as an intelligent colleague?
The alternative is a rating scale that focuses on the assessment of an employee’s actual performance. This type of rating usually involves the assessment of quantity or quality with regard to behavior or the work being performed by the employee. What would “enthusiastic” conveying of ideas look like? Could we observe and assess tone of voice, volume, or the use of certain words? This would involve the use of an observation form.
What would “persuasive” look like as a measurable outcome? Could the employee’s colleagues rate the extent to which their own attitude about a specific issue was changed as a result of this employee’s presentation? Even more tangibly, could specific outcomes be documented, in terms of actions taken as a result of her presentation? At this point, the performance appraisal is likely to embrace both rating scales and some form of documentation. These behavior or performance-based scales also tend to link the rating scale method with the intention-focused appraisal methodology, to which I turn my attention later in this chapter.
