Summarizing and Measuring Participants' Perceptions Related to Performance Appraisal Effectiveness

The purpose of this dissertation was to summarize the performance appraisal literature regarding the characteristics associated with effective outcomes and then develop an instrument that can be used in field settings to measure these characteristics. A framework based on the organizational justice literature was developed to organize and integrate the various findings from past appraisal research. Characteristics which past research has found to be associated with desired outcomes were grouped into three broad categories which roughly parallel the three types of organizational justice. An instrument was then created drawing on findings from the climate literature which indicate that individuals respond to the environment based on their perceptions of the environment (Brown & Leigh, 1996; James, Hater, Gent & Bruni, 1978; James & James, 1989).

Three stages of instrument development were conducted in order to develop scales for 12 key appraisal characteristics. Exploratory factor analyses, estimates of reliability, and confirmatory factor analyses were utilized in scale development and evaluation. Analysis of the data found each of the 12 scales to be unidimensional and to possess cross-validated internal consistency reliability estimates above .70.

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the proposed three-factor framework. Overall, the fit indices indicate that the three-factor model fits that data relatively well compared with the two-factor models and a one-factor model tested. Correlations and results from dominance analyses were also examined to explore the relationships with outcome variables. Implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.