An examination of the consequences of feedback requirements in the performance appraisal process

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that were predicted to influence performance ratings when raters are required to provide feedback to ratees. Raters who were required to conduct a feedback meeting with a ratee were expected to experience greater anxiety than other raters, and provide more favorable public evaluations of the ratee. Anxiety was expected to mediate the effects of feedback requirements on public evaluations. Raters who were required to conduct a feedback meeting were expected to demonstrate encoding bias toward positive examples of the ratee's performance, as well as form more favorable private evaluations. Self-efficacy for delivering negative feedback was predicted to be negatively related to rater anxiety, while raters' tendency to avoid conflict was hypothesized to be positively related to anxiety. Finally, raters who were required to conduct a feedback meeting were expected to form less complex, evaluatively consistent impressions of the ratee. Raters in the study were 201 undergraduate students who participated in one of three conditions: Control, No Feedback, and Feedback. Raters were asked to observe a videotape of a ratee. In the Feedback condition, raters were told they were required to provide feedback to the ratee. Raters' anxiety, encoding strategies, private and public evaluations, and impressions of the ratee were measured. Self-efficacy and conflict avoidance were measured in a separate session, prior to the experiment Results indicated that raters in the Feedback condition provided more favorable public evaluations than raters in the No Feedback condition. They experienced greater anxiety. Anxiety did not mediate the effects of feedback requirements on public evaluations. The predicted interactions between self-efficacy, conflict avoidance and rater anxiety were not obtained, although the within-condition correlations were consistent with predictions. Raters in the Feedback condition exhibited encoding bias toward positive ratee performance incidents. Their private evaluations were more favorable than those made by other raters. Finally, feedback requirements had no effect on public evaluations beyond the effects of encoding and private evaluations. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, as well as the theoretical and practical significance of the findings were discussed.