Effects of upward accountability and rating purpose on peer-rater inflation and delay: a field experiment

✍ Scribed by David Beckner; Scott Highhouse; John T. Hazer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 135 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3796
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199803)19:2<209::aid-job880>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

Procedural in¯uences on peer-rater distortion and delay were investigated in a ®eld experiment. Employees (N 123) of a business information ®rm were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (upward accountability versus no accountability) by 2 (administrative purpose versus research purpose) experimental design. Results revealed evidence for an accountability by purpose interaction on rater delay. Speci®cally, raters delayed rating their peers when the purpose was research-only and they had to explain their ratings to a supervisor. When the rating purpose was administrative, no dierences in delay due to accountability were obtained. We found no eects for upward accountability and rating purpose on peer-rater in¯ation.