Chapter 5

Measuring Results
and
Behaviors

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 Key Questions

 Where should each individual focus

efforts?
 What are the expected objectives?
 How do we know how well the
results were achieved?

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Measuring Results: Overview

 Accountabilities
 Objectives
 Performance Standards

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 Accountabilities

 Broad areas of a job for which

an employee is responsible for
producing results

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 Objectives

 Statements of important and

measurable outcomes

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 Performance Standards

 Yardstick used to evaluate how

well employees have achieved
objectives

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Determining Accountabilities
 Collect information about the job (Job
Description)
 Determine importance of task or
cluster of tasks
• Percentage of employee’s time spent
performing tasks
• Impact on the unit’s mission if
performed inadequately
• Consequences of error
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 Determining Objectives

 Purpose: to identify outcomes

 Limited number
 Highly important
 When achieved
 Dramatic impact on overall
organization success

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Ten Characteristics of Good
Objectives
1. Specific and Clear
2. Challenging
3. Agreed Upon
4. Significant
5. Prioritized
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Ten Characteristics of Good
Objectives (Continued)
6. Bound by Time
7. Achievable
8. Fully Communicated
9. Flexible
10. Limited in Number
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 Determining Performance
Standards
 Standards refer to aspects of
performance objectives, such as:
 Quality
• How well the objective is achieved
 Quantity
• How much, how many, how often, and at
what cost?
 Time
• Due dates, schedule, cycle times, and how
quickly?
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 Standards Must Include

 A verb
 The desired result
 A due date
 Some type of indicator
• Quality or
• Quantity
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Good Performance Standards:
Six Characteristics
1. Related to the Position
2. Concrete, Specific, and Measurable
3. Practical to Measure
4. Meaningful
5. Realistic and Achievable
6. Reviewed Regularly
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Measuring Behaviors: Overview

 Identify competencies
 Identify indicators
 Choose measurement system

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 Identify Competencies

 Measurable clusters of KSAs

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Abilities
 That are critical in determining how
results will be achieved

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 Types of Competencies
 Differentiating
• Distinguish between superior and
average performance
 Threshold
• Needed to perform to minimum
standard

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 Identify Indicators
 Observable behaviors
 Used to measure the extent to
which competencies are present or
not

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Necessary Components for
Describing Competencies
 Definition
 Description of specific behaviors
• When competency is demonstrated
• When competency is not demonstrated
 Suggestions for developing the
competency
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Choose a Measurement System

 Comparative system
• Compares employees with one another
 Absolute system
• Compares employees with prespecified
performance standards

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Advantages of Comparative
Systems
 Easy to explain
 Straightforward
 Identifies top as well as underperformers
 Better control for biases and errors found in
absolute systems
• Leniency
• Severity
• Central tendency
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Disadvantages of Comparative
Systems
 Rankings may not be specific enough for:
• Useful feedback
• Protection from legal challenge
 No information on relative distance
between employees
 Specific issues with forced distribution
method

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 Comparative Systems

 Simple rank order

 Alternation rank order
 Paired comparisons
 Relative percentile
 Forced distribution

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 Simple Rank Order
 Advantages:
• Simple and easy to do
• Results are clear
 Disadvantages:
• Judges performance based on one
dimension only
• May be difficult to rank similar performance
levels

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 Alternation Rank Order
 Advantages:
• Simple and easy to do
• Results are clear
• Uses two anchors (best and worst)
 Disadvantages:
• Judges performance based on one dimension
only
• May be difficult to rank similar performance
levels
• Does not specify threshold for acceptable
performance
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 Paired Comparisons
 Advantages:
• Thorough
• Final rankings are more accurate
 Disadvantages:
• Very time consuming
• May encounter problem of comparing
“apples and oranges”

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 Relative Percentile
 Advantages:
• Simple and easy to use
• Evaluates specific competencies or overall
performance
 Disadvantages:
• May be difficult to consider all ratees at the
same time
• Time consuming if using several scales for
different competencies

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 Forced Distribution
 Advantages:
• Categorizes employees into specific
performance groups
• Facilitates reward assessment
• Competition may be good for organizational
performance
 Disadvantages:
• Assumes performance scores are normally
distributed
• May discourage contextual performance and
teamwork
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 Absolute Systems

 Essays
 Behavior checklists
 Critical incidents
 Graphic rating scales

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Advantages and Disadvantages of
Absolute Systems
 Advantages:
• Can be used in large and small organizations
• Evaluations more widely accepted by
employees
 Disadvantages:
• Higher risk of leniency, severity, and central
tendency biases
• Generally, more time consuming than
comparative systems

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 Behavior Checklists
 Advantages:
• Easy to use and understand
• Provides quantitative information
• Widespread use
• More objective than other systems
 Disadvantages:
• May feel impersonal and disconnected
• Scale points used are often arbitrary
• Difficult to get detailed and useful feedback
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 Essays
 Advantages:
• Simplest absolute method
• Individualized for each employee
• Can be done anytime
• Potential for detailed feedback
 Disadvantages:
• Unstructured and may lack detail
• Depends on supervisor’s writing skill
• Comparisons virtually impossible
• Lack of quantitative information; difficult to use in
personnel decisions

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 Critical Incidents
 Advantages:
• Focus on actual job behavior
• Provides specific examples
• Employees identify with rating
 Disadvantages:
• Collecting critical incidents can be very time
consuming
• Quantification is difficult

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 Graphic Rating Scales
 Advantages:
• Meanings, interpretations, and dimensions
being rated are clear
• Useful and accurate
• Most popular tool
 Disadvantages:
• Time consuming and resource-laden to
develop
• Lacks individualized feedback and
recommendations
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 Graphic Rating Scales:
BARS Improvement
 Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
(BARS)
 Uses critical incidents as anchors
 Involves multiple groups of employees in
development
• Identify important job elements
• Describe critical incidents at various levels of
performance
• Check for inter-rater reliability
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 Measuring Performance

 Several types of methods

 Differ in terms of:
• Practicality (time and effort)
• Usefulness (quantifiable)

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 Quick Review
 Measuring Results
• Identify accountabilities
• Set objectives
• Determine standards of performance
 Measuring Behaviors
• Identify competencies
• Identify indicators
• Choose measurement system
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publishing as Prentice Hall
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