The effect of rater locus of control and rating purpose on leniency of performance evaluations

Supervisor ratings of subordinate performance are an important means of evaluation in organizations. In this study, the effect of a rater personality characteristic and a rating context variable on performance evaluations made during the rating process were examined. Specifically, a rater's locus of control (internal, external) and the purpose for the rating (administrative, feedback) were hypothesized to have an effect on the leniency of the ratings. Ninety male and female MBA students evaluated the performance of an individual on an "in-basket" simulation task after reading a description, in critical incident form, of the performance. Subjects completed the Sphere-specific Locus of Control Scale, and rated the extent to which ability, task difficulty, effort, and luck were influential in explaining the ratee's performance. Results of a regression analysis indicated that both locus of control and purpose had little effect on performance ratings. In addition, the attributions subjects made concerning the cause of the ratee's poor performance were not significantly related to either locus of control or performance ratings. Subjects attributed performance more to the effort of the ratee, and rated luck quite low as a factor determining ratee performance. In other analyses, it was shown that female raters assigned lower performance ratings than male raters and also had higher locus of control scores, reflecting more internality than males. The total variance accounted for in performance ratings by purpose, locus of control, gender, and internal attributions was 8.2%. Since this was an exploratory study examining the effects of locus of control on performance evaluations, future research attention to this variable is encouraged.