Implicit Model Of Performance Appraisal: An Empirical Analysis

Performance appraisal is one of the core functions in human resource management, and also is an important research focus in the long history of I/O psychology. Based on the review of literatures, the present paper used some relevant concepts and theories of I/O psychology, cognitive psychology and human resource management to study implicit modeling of performance appraisal through interviews, questionnaire survey and experimental studies. It mainly focused on: 1) performance conceptalization and performance modeling under the Chinese management context, 2) developing an of implicit model of performance characteristic, 3) studying the effects of organizational context and performance goals on implicit performance modeling, 4) comparing different implicit model of performance characteristic and analyzing performance appraisal bias and managerial decisions process.The study consists of six sections:In section one, the new developments in research on performance appraisal and the concept of implicit theory and implicit model of performance characteristic was discussed, so as to formulate the research plans. Several results were found: 1) the performance concept and perofrmance modeling was an important topic in performance appraisal research.The model of task performance and contextual performance was the basic model for the recent researches.Recent research focused on managerial performance. 2) Previous research on cognitive process appraisal focused more on the concept and sources of bias, and how to eliminate the bias. 3) Researchers began to pay attention to the performance appraisal context. 4) Some researchs were carried on appraisal satisfaction, appraisal effectiveness, which had effects on human rsource decisions. 5) Developments in research and practice in performance appraisal suggested that an implicit model of performance characteristic be based on the concept of cognitive schema with theoretical assumptions about the implicit performance model.The implicit model has important effects on judgment behavior.In section two, under the Chinese managerial context, a model of managerial performance was proposed through field interview and survey. It was found that the model had three dimensions: behavioral performance, management process and business performance.In section three, with large samples, the study analyzed the reliability and validity of the implicit managerial performance model, restructured a three dimension model, measured and discussed the implicit model. It was found that there was a complex relationship with performance appraisal. The study analyzed the social desirability effects and found conjoint effects with implicit model of performance characteristic. The performance goals and performance appraisal conditions had effects on implicit model of performance characteristic.In section four, the study compared the implicit model of performance characteristic between supervisors and subordinates. Significant discrepancy was found and attributed to low consistency between supervisor and subordinates. Even within the same level of appraisers, there were discrepancies among individuals. The supervisor showed higher consistency than that of.In section five, using the experiment, the study analyzed the effects of implicit model of performance characteristic on managerial decisions. It was found that people have different models under different decision tasks. With the changing of tasks, implicit model was transferred from one to another. Appraisee's contextual performance had effects on performance appraisal under appraiser's implicit model.In the last section, the paper discussed the main results of this study. It proved that appraiser's implicit model of performance characteristic had an important effect on appraiser's behaviors. Some weaknesses and future research were also discussed.