Accuracy and effectiveness in appraisal outcomes: The influence of self-efficacy, personal factors and organisational variables

Two studies tested relationships of personal factors and organisational context variables with rating accuracy and perceived effectiveness of appraisals, and the role of self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationships between the two sets of variables. Study 1 was a controlled experiment in which nurse supervisors appraised a video stimulus of a nurse's performance. Study 2 was a field study in which nurses and their supervisors each independently completed an assessment of their annual appraisal review, following the meeting. A ten-item scale for performance appraiser self-efficacy (PASE) was developed and tested for measurement properties on a large sample of nurses that included those who participated in either Study 1 or Study 2. The PASE scale was found to have high reliability and reasonable predictive validity. PASE predicted rating accuracy, appraiser and appraisee perceptions of effectiveness, and appraiser-appraisee agreement on the effectiveness of an actual appraisal, after controlling for the effects of personal factors and organisational context. The main contextual influences were accountability, importance and management concern but the effects varied for self-efficacy and different appraisal outcomes. The main predictor of self-efficacy was the amount of training received by appraisers across the multiple sub-tasks of appraisal.