Context Of Appraisal Research Articles

Does the leadership style influence the office politics in performance appraisal? Empirical study from Malaysian financial sector

Employees play a pivotal role in the Malaysian financial industry, as this sector requires individuals capable of meeting the demands of the global financial market and enhancing Malaysia's position as a leading international financial hub. Consequently, employees' behavior and practices can significantly impact the institution's reputation. Previous research has identified office politics as a detrimental factor in organizational performance, prompting this study to investigate the impact of leadership styles on organizational politics within the context of performance appraisal. A survey was conducted through the distribution of questionnaires among 274 officers and clerical staff, selected using proportionate stratified random sampling from a Malaysian government financial institution based in Kuala Lumpur. Of the distributed questionnaires, 105 were completed and deemed usable. The study identified three reliable dimensions of politics in performance appraisal: acquiring benefits, human relations, and control. In examining leadership styles, the study found that the integrative leadership style was the only reliable dimension. Correlation analysis revealed that integrative leadership style generally correlates significantly and negatively with politics in performance appraisal. Specifically, integrative leadership style had a significant negative impact on the human relations and control dimensions. Regression analysis further indicated that integrative leadership style significantly and negatively influenced only the control dimension of performance appraisal politics. The study discusses the implications of these findings for future research and practice, as well as the limitations of the current study.

The effect of performance appraisal politics on deviant work behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction

BACKGROUND: Performance management is pivotal in determining employee outcomes. Firms may face undesired consequences in the absence of an impartial and fair performance appraisal system. Organizational justice theory predicts the negative outcomes of performance appraisal politics that the study examines in the form of mediating and outcome variables. OBJECTIVES: There is a paucity of research regarding the impact of justice/fairness perceptions on employee outcomes in the performance appraisal context. Therefore, the study examines the effect of performance appraisal politics on deviant work behavior with the mediating role of job satisfaction. METHODS: Survey data were collected from 309 employees of banks through a likert type scale questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model. RESULTS: The results show that performance appraisal politics is positively related to deviant work behaviors. The mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship is also substantiated. CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the view of organizational justice theory regarding the negative impact of performance appraisal politics. The findings also highlight the need to design effective interventions to mitigate the negative effects of such politics. The study provides fresh insight into the dynamics of the interplay between performance appraisal politics, job satisfaction and deviant work behaviors.

The Role of Authentic Leadership in Shaping Performance Feedback Reactions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Leader

In this study we attempted to explore the effect of authentic leadership on followers’ feedback reactions in the performance appraisal context using trust in leader as the mediating variable. We collected data from a sample of 183 employees working in the information technology sector of Pakistan using a self-administered questionnaire, employing a cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling technique. The study provided empirical evidence about the effect of authentic leadership on performance feedback reactions and the associated mediating mechanism. It drew on authentic leadership theory and investigated why such a leadership style was important in making the performance appraisal process successful and effective. As hypothesized, authentic leadership significantly predicted perceived feedback accuracy and utility (two feedback reactions in performance appraisal). Our findings confirmed that there was a significant mediating effect of trust in leaders between authentic leadership and performance feedback reactions. The inferences drawn based on the results suggested that raters’ authenticity in performance appraisal context creates a trusting situation and leads to ratees’ perception of feedback accuracy and utility.

Intolerance of uncertainty and distress in women with delayed IVF treatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of situation appraisal and coping strategies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays of numerous medical procedures, including IVF. This study investigates the relationship between Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), situation appraisal-the perceived threat that COVID-19 poses for infertility treatment, coping strategies, and general distress among women with a delayed IVF procedure. SEM showed that situation appraisal is a partial mediator of the relationship between IU and avoidance, as well as the relationship between IU and general distress. The connection between situation appraisal and general distress is partially mediated by avoidance. In this challenging context for mental health, situation appraisal and coping strategies determine the level of distress, where IU, as a dispositional variable, represents the main determinant of the entire reaction.

Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition by Hans Boersma

Reviewed by: Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition by Hans Boersma Elizabeth A. Huddleston Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition by Hans Boersma (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2018), xx + 467 pp. Hans Boersma's project over the past decade or so has largely been to establish a theology of what he calls "sacramental ontology." Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition is an excellent addition to this ongoing project. In this book, Boersma advocates for a "sacramental understanding of the beatific vision" that "takes seriously the teleological character of history" (10). At the onset Boersma makes the point that our teleological "gaze," so to speak, needs to shift from the spatial or vertical metaphor to a more horizontal or temporal metaphor in which "we anticipate seeing God at the end of our lives and, particularly, at the end of history" (10). This metaphor, Boersma argues, more accurately demonstrates that "the telos or purpose of our lives is the vision of God (visio Dei) in Christ" (10). Thus, "we could interpret life as a pilgrimage to a sacred place and … treat history as an apprenticeship that aims at acquiring a skill" (10). In order to shift this metaphor, Boersma does not simply "rehearse in any detail the Catholic debate surrounding the supernatural" (11). Rather, he goes "beyond the broader metaphysical issue of the sacramental relationship between nature and the supernatural to the question of what it means to conceive of the beatific vision sacramentally" (11). The primary question Boersma asks is: "If the beatific vision is our ultimate telos, then how does [End Page 987] God's economy," or as he deems it in the last chapter, "God's pedagogy," work in line with our ultimate end? (11–12). Boersma concludes that "just as the pilgrims would sing the Songs of Ascent (Pss. 120–134) on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so we contemplate Christ in anticipation of the face-to-face vision of God in Christ. A truly sacramental understanding of the beatific vision, therefore, points us to the recognition of the real presence of Christ already in this life, in anticipation of the beatific vision of God in the hereafter" (13–14, emphasis original). This book is divided into four parts, which are primarily organized chronologically. Part 4 breaks from the strict chronological presentation in order to propose a "dogmatic appraisal" of our conception of the beatific vision in light of the previous three chapters. While this book is not intended to be a historical analysis of a particular idea per se, Boersma does a good job of grounding his argument historically, as well as tracing the idea of the beatific vision within the greater Christian tradition. The introduction and first chapter introduce the contemporary context for Boersma's appraisal of the doctrine of the beatific vision. He begins his book with the questions, "Why beatific vision?" and "Why make the claim that seeing God is the purpose of our life?" (1). Calling specifically upon the metaphor found in Christian tradition of the beatific vision as the telos of human life, Boersma explains that the metaphor of "seeing God" is found in Scripture, which influences a "system of analogies" (spirals) that point to Christ as the archetypical "sacramental reality (res) in which the various historical events (the types) inhere or participate as sacraments (sacramenta)" (9). Paraphrasing Edward Pusey, Boersma explains that "Christ—who is in his person the embodiment of the eternal Word or Son of God—is the sacramental reality (res) in which sacramental types (sacramenta) find their truth or identity" (9). Part 1, "Beatific Vision in Early Christian Thought," begins with chapter 2 and focuses on the Platonic and neo-Platonic roots of early Christian theologies of the beatific vision. Chapter 2, "Philosophy and Vision," looks at how Plato and Plotinus help to set the philosophical stage for early Christian theological exploration into the nature of seeing divine beauty and virtue. Chapter 3, "Progress and Vision," is dedicated to Gregory of Nyssa's notion of spiritual progress in his Homilies on the Beatitudes, The Life of Moses, and Homilies on the Song of Songs. Chapter 4, "Anticipation and Vision...

A New Theory of Material Adverse Effect Clauses

MAE clauses in business combination agreements almost never define the phrase “material adverse effect,” and so the meaning of that key expression derives primarily from a line of Delaware cases starting with In re IBP Shareholders Litigation. In that case, the court said that a material adverse effect requires an event that substantially threatens the overall earnings potential of the target in a durationally-significant manner. In implementing this standard in IBP and subsequent cases, the courts have had to determine how the target’s earnings should be measured (e.g., by EBITDA or by some other measure of cashflow), how changes in earnings should be determined (e.g., which fiscal periods should be compared with which), and how large a diminution in earnings is material. Neither IBP nor subsequent cases have provided clear and convincing resolutions of these issues. On the contrary, later cases have introduced yet new problems, such as whether it matters that the risk that has materialized and adversely affected the target’s business was known to the acquirer at signing, whether material adverse effects should be measured in quantitative ways, qualitative ways, or both, and whether a material adverse effect must be felt by the company within a certain period of time after the occurrence of the event causing the effect. This article proposes a new understanding of material adverse effects that solves all of these problems. Beginning from the foundational premise that a material adverse effect should be understood from the perspective of a reasonable acquirer, this article argues that such an effect is a material reduction in the value of the company as reasonably understood in accordance with accepted principles of corporate finance—that is, as a material reduction in the present value of all the company’s future cashflows. Hence, to determine if there has been a material adverse effect, the court has to value the company twice, once as of the date of signing and again as of the date of the alleged material adverse effect, in each case much as it would in an appraisal action. Valuing the company is easier and more reliable in the MAE context than in the appraisal context, however, not only because the court need obtain only a range of values for the company at the two relevant times (and not pinpoint valuations as in appraisal proceedings) but also because it turns out that there is a canonical way to determine if a reduction in the value of the company would be material to a reasonable acquirer. The new theory of MAEs presented here solves all of the problems in the caselaw noted above and explains why those problems could not be solved with the conceptual resources available in the existing caselaw.

Examining the use of core terms in a records appraisal context – two Swedish examples

Records appraisal in the digital environment becomes a multi-professional enterprise, undertaken in the line of business, in which non-archivists play a vital role, but appraisal practices are not adjusted to this electronic reality. One aspect of this problem is the use and understanding of terminology. This paper presents a study on the usage of records-related terms in steering documents that affect records appraisal in Sweden. It uses a structured model for the analysis of steering documents. Used data sources are authoritative term databases and terminology report and steering documents from the three levels of regulations, i.e. Legislation and Regulations, Policy decisions and Instructions and Retention decisions steering documents from the Swedish National Archives and Stockholm City Archives, both archival authorities within their jurisdictions. The steering documents represents levels of hierarchical impact and are the foundations upon which appraisal is done and effectuated. Analysis of term frequency show change in vocabulary at level of hierarchy as well as development in time. Analysis of focus, characteristics and common features in definitions of terms show a variety of possible interpretations of the included terms, a result that affects appraisal and underpins a need for common corporate understanding in areas with multi-professional influences. The paper concludes that legal terms have impact on term use at regulation level, which lessens at lower levels, where vocabulary broadens. Difference is found between the two archival institutions studied, especially at decision level. Analysis of focus, characteristics and common features in definitions of terms show a variety of possible interpretations of the included terms, a result that affects appraisal and underpins a need for common corporate understanding in areas with multi-professional influences. An action suggested to mitigate risk is to form Communities of Practice for the task of records appraisal. One part of the task for these communities should be to agree upon shared concepts on used terminology that support electronic records appraisal. This would be a step where everyone involved develop a solid ground for the setting of the scope of appraisal. The idea of introducing Communities of Practice for the records and archives appraisal task is wider than the subject of this article, and should be further developed.

ARIMA Forecasting: Variables without a Cause

AbstractARIMA forecast methods offer short term accuracy but have severe limitations in the appraisal context. ARIMA forecasts fail to identify or model causal variables, require more data points than are usually available and are very difficult to explain to non-statisticians. Better forecast alternatives are available to appraisers.

Motivating raters through work design: Applying the job characteristics model to the performance appraisal context

AbstractIn general, raters are responsible for evaluating their subordinates’ performance and delivering their final performance ratings. As most organizations prefer accurate ratings, past research has focused on encouraging raters to produce more accurate appraisals. Extant research on rater motivations has highlighted the various factors affecting rating accuracy, but the job characteristics of appraisals represent an unexplored area. The current study attempts to extend the rater motivation research by introducing a work design perspective of appraisal and exploring the ways in which the job characteristics of appraisals can be used to motivate raters. First, rater motivation theory and Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model (JCM) are reviewed. Then, the current study illustrates how the JCM can be applied to the performance appraisal context.

Does the Theory of Planned Behavior Predict Dietary Sodium Intake in Patients With Heart Failure?

Sodium intake in heart failure (HF) is a crucial but poorly understood phenomenon. Theoretical models promote understanding and provide a context for rational appraisal of complex situations. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors were associated with sodium intake in HF patients using theory of planned behavior (TPB). In this study, patients' ( N = 244) attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (tenets of the TPB) were assessed using the Dietary Sodium Restriction Questionnaire. Sodium intake was estimated objectively by 24-hr urinary sodium excretion (UNa). The average UNa was 3,811 mg. Subjective norms, gender, and New York Heart Association functional class were associated with sodium intake ( p < .001). Thus, it is important for health care providers to clearly express their approval of following low-sodium diet to their HF patients, and include significant others in interventions to help patients develop/maintain a positive subjective norm to decrease sodium intake and reduce HF exacerbations.

Teaching as inquiry in an appraisal context

Teaching as inquiry in an appraisal context

Effects of cognitive control training on the dynamics of (mal)adaptive emotion regulation in daily life.

Cognitive control plays a key role in both adaptive emotion regulation, such as positive reappraisal, and maladaptive emotion regulation, such as rumination, with both strategies playing a major role in resilience and well-being. As a result, cognitive control training (CCT) targeting working memory functioning may have the potential to reduce maladaptive emotion regulation and increase adaptive emotion regulation. The current study explored the effects of CCT on positive reappraisal ability in a lab context, and deployment and efficacy of positive appraisal and rumination in daily life. A sample of undergraduates (n = 83) was allocated to CCT or an active control condition, performing 10 online training sessions over a period of 14 days. Effects on regulation of affective states in daily life were assessed using experience sampling over a 7-day posttraining period. Results revealed a positive association between baseline cognitive control and self-reported use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, whereas maladaptive emotion regulation strategies showed a negative association. CCT showed transfer to working memory functioning on the dual n-back task. Overall, effects of CCT on emotion regulation were limited to reducing deployment of rumination in low positive affective states. However, we did not find beneficial effects on indicators of adaptive emotion regulation. These findings are in line with previous studies targeting maladaptive emotion regulation but suggest limited use in enhancing adaptive emotion regulation in a healthy sample. (PsycINFO Database Record

Measuring Accountability in the Performance Appraisal Context: Rater Status and Organization Culture as Determinants of Rater Accountability

The purpose of this study is to develop a measure of rater accountability, test differences in raters and ratees’ perceived level of rater accountability, and examine the positive relationship between an organizational culture promoting accurate appraisals and rater accountability. A total of 374 surveys were collected from full-time civil servants working in four central government agencies and three local government offices in South Korea. The sample consisted of 254 men and 120 women, and the average organization tenure was 15 years. Rater accountability measures were developed by modifying felt accountability measures and showed internal reliability. The results of multiple regression analysis reveal that an organizational culture promoting accurate appraisals affects rater accountability. However, contrary to expectation, raters and ratees show no meaningful difference in their level of perceived rater accountability.

Organizing the Performance Appraisal Context

A framework that organizes the myriad of contextual factors in performance appraisals is developed to guide systematic future research in this area. Emphasis is placed on categorizing contextual fa...

When Rating Format Induces Different Rating Processes: The Effects of Descriptive and Evaluative Rating Modes on Discriminability and Accuracy

We examined how different kinds of rating formats, and their interaction with purposes of rating (administrative vs. developmental), induced different performance rating processes and their consequences for rating accuracy. In two experiments, participants rated seven targets presented via videotapes using modes of rating giving access to (a) descriptive knowledge (rating scales were a target’s observable behaviors: Descriptive Behavior–DB), (b) evaluative knowledge (rating scales were others’ behaviors that the target tended to afford: Evaluative Behavior–EB), or (c) a mix of the two knowledge types (rating scales were traits). Indexes of discriminability (within- and between-ratee discriminability) and of accuracy (differential elevation and differential accuracy) were collected. The results showed that EB rating scales led to higher between-ratee discriminability and differential elevation than other modes of rating, whereas DB rating scales led to higher within-ratee discriminability than the other modes. Our results indicate that EB rating scales are more suited to comparing different ratees (e.g., an administrative purpose for rating), whereas DB scales are more suited to identifying strengths and weaknesses of a particular ratee (e.g., a developmental purpose). Our experiments are the first to apply dual-knowledge (descriptive vs. evaluative) theory to a performance appraisal context and to examine rating purpose in interaction with these two forms of person knowledge. The results, consistent with theoretical predictions, indicate that using rating scales with different types of content as a function of the rating purpose will produce more appropriate performance ratings.

Performance appraisal: the development of a multi-criteria management tool based on Erdogan's model

An organisation’s performance depended on its people and their competencies. Performance appraisal represents the most important factor in human resource management, as well as in the strategic management. This article proposes a reference model to assess performance of human resource for the supervision and management of horse racing in the appraisal context. The present paper uses Erdogan’s model and analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a research method to support rational decision-making on several qualitative factors, to evaluate human performances and provides a way to rank the alternatives of the problem by deriving priorities. The proposed model can be used for all of the assessment processes while the decision of the criteria and sub criteria can be changed in accordance to the management agreement.

Coping styles associated with heart failure outcomes: A systematic review

Background: The incidence of heart failure continues to rise in the United States, with more than 600,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The progressive nature of heart failure predisposes individuals to physical and psychological sequelae, including physical activity intolerance and depressive symptoms. Coping is beneficial in assisting individuals to live with heart failure. Evidence suggests that how individuals cope with heart failure may influence heart failure-related outcomes, such as psychological well-being, self-care, health-related quality of life, and mortality. Thus, a better under- standing of coping styles can assist clinicians and researchers to develop interventions that improve heart failure outcomes. Purpose: To provide a systematic review and synthesis of evidence regarding the influence of coping styles in HF. A conceptualization of coping commonly used in heart failure-related literature within the context of stress and cognitive appraisal of stress is described. In addition, this review will identify what is known about: (1) individual factors that influence coping styles in heart failure; (2) the influence of coping styles on heart failure-related outcomes; and (3) interventions that promote effective (e.g., problem-focused) coping in heart failure. Methodological issues associated with this empirical literature and implications for clinicians and research also were discussed. Methods: This article provides a systematic review of current empirical evidence regarding the influence of coping styles on heart failure-related outcomes. Results: This review of empirical literature revealed several factors that may influence coping style in individuals with HF, including co-morbidities, personality, illness knowledge and beliefs, and sense of coherence. Additionally, the use of problem-focused coping strategies was found to be related to positive HF outcomes, such as psychological well-being, enhanced self-care, and improved health-related quality of life. Whereas, the use of emotion-focused coping strategies was found to be associated with negative HF outcomes, such as psychological distress, decreased health-related quality of life, and increased HF-related mortality. Although limited, experimental work in this area suggests that problem-focused coping strategies may be beneficial in improving HF-related outcomes. Conclusions: Effective coping aids the successful management of heart failure, specifically the management of associated physical symptoms and psychological sequelae that may result. Problem-focused strategies may be more beneficial than emotion-focused strategies in assisting individuals to cope with heart failure and improve heart failure outcomes, such as psychological well-being, self-care, and health-related quality of life. Conversely, emotion-focused strategies may nega- tively influence heart failure outcomes, such as psychological distress, decreased health-related quality of life, and heart failure-related mortality. Therefore, nurses should include problem-focused coping strategies in patient and family education. Research on the effectiveness of problem-focused strategies is sparse, thus more experimental studies, particularly longitudinal designs, is warranted to determine the efficacy of problem-focused interventions throughout the progression of heart failure.

The Second Elevation of the Novel: Race, Form, and the Postrace Aesthetic in Contemporary Narrative

A new generation of minority and ethnic writers has come to prominence whose work signals a radical turn to a "postrace" era in American literature. Like Virginia Woolf ironically identifying the beginning of the modern era "on or about December 1910," Colson Whitehead, in an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times in 2009, marked the anniversary of the election of the first black man to the presidency of the United States by proclaiming that "One year ago . . . we officially became a postracial society." I will return to Whitehead momentarily, especially in reference to three of his novels, The Intuitionist (1998), John Henry Days (2001), and Zone One (2011). For the moment, however, I wish first to set the context for my appraisal of what I am calling here a "postrace aesthetic" in contemporary narrative.

Improving Leadership in Multiteam Systems: The Effects of Frame-of- Reference Training

In line with recent work which suggests that multiteam systems benefit from more centralized planning functions relative to stand-alone teams, we examine the importance of centralizing strategic execution (i.e., integrative) functions in multiteam systems. Building from representational gaps theory, we studied the effects of frame-of- reference training on strategic execution and multiteam system performance in 249 large multiteam systems comprised of three specialized component teams each with six members. We found that frame-of-reference training had direct positive effects on strategic execution and enhanced the relationship between coordination within component teams and strategic execution. Our findings extend our understanding of multiteam system leadership functions, highlight the interdependencies between component team coordination efforts, and demonstrate that frame-of-reference training can be effectively applied beyond the performance appraisal context to aid multiteam system functioning.

Importance of system and leadership in performance appraisal

PurposePerformance appraisal is used internationally to improve employee performance, also in the educational field. However, doubts exist about the effectiveness of performance appraisal. This study aims to contribute by expanding the knowledge about important context variables of performance appraisal in secondary education. In particular, the study aims to examine the role of both characteristics of the teacher performance appraisal system and the school leader for procedural justice and perceived feedback utility by teachers.Design/methodology/approachBoth interviews with school leaders and a questionnaire for teachers were used to collect data in 32 schools. Path analyses (n=298) were used to test the research model.FindingsThe results indicate that teacher participation in the teacher performance appraisal system significantly influences the perceived procedural justice by teachers, which in its turn significantly influences the perceived feedback utility. The role of the school leaders is found to be extremely important. Charismatic leadership influences both directly and indirectly (through procedural justice) the perceived feedback utility by teachers.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the research field of (teacher) performance appraisal by studying empirically appraisal system characteristics and leadership characteristics that effect appraisal reactions. In this regard, this study responds to the need for more empirical research to uncover the social context of performance appraisal, especially in the field of education where there is a general skepticism towards teacher appraisal and its possible positive outcomes.