Investigating the Effects of Subtle Ratee Characteristics in Team Performance Appraisal: The Influence of Personality and Cohesiveness

This study extends the research into systematic bias in performance appraisal to include subtle (i.e., not overtly demographic) ratee characteristics. Specifically examined were the biasing effects of personality and group cohesiveness on performance ratings. It was hypothesized that raters' personality inferences regarding ratees' levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness would correlate with bias in performance ratings. Interpersonal group cohesiveness was also hypothesized to affect rating accuracy. Research participants (n = 90) rated the performance of two videotaped leaderless group discussions. Personality inferences correlated strongly with leniency in performance ratings. In addition, significant differences in accuracy were found between the more and less cohesive discussion groups. The relatively large proportion of variance in rating accuracy accounted for by personality inferences suggests that part of the observed relationship between personality and performance ratings may be spurious.