Performance Modeling Techniques

Performance modeling techniques- There are three techniques used for performance modeling. 

Objective production

This method consists of direct, albeit limited, measures such as production numbers, sales figures, the electronic performance monitoring of data entry workers, etc. The measures that are used to model performance are modified according to the job and its duties. Despite dealing with unambiguous criteria, these measures are usually incomplete as a result of criterion contamination and deficiency. The part of the actual criteria that is unrelated to the conceptual criteria is known as criterion contamination. Simply put, the variability in performance may be a result of factors outside of the employee’s control. Criterion deficiency is that part of the conceptual criteria that cannot be measured by the actual criteria. This implies, that the quality of the products is not necessarily indicated by the quantity of production. Both types of criterion inadequacies lead to a reduction in the validity of the measure. Objective production data is relevant even though it does not completely reflect upon job performance.

Personnel

The personnel method consists of a recording of withdrawal behaviors (i.e. absenteeism, accidents). Unexcused absences are considered to be indicators of poor job performance by most companies, even with all other factors being equal. However, this is subject to criterion deficiency. The dedication of the employee to his or her jobs and duties is not necessarily reflected by the employee’s absences. In the context of blue-collar jobs, accidents can often be a useful indicator of poor job performance, however, this too is subject to criterion contamination as accidents can also be a consequence of situational factors. Once again, both types of criterion inadequacies result in reduced validity of the measure. Excessive absenteeism and similar personal data, though often indicative of poor job performance rather than good performance, is not a comprehensive reflection of an employee’s performance.

Judgmental Evaluation

Judgmental evaluation is a collection of methods, and as such, could be considered a methodology. One of the prevalent approaches to obtaining performance modeling is by means of raters. However, since the raters are human, there will always be some amount of error in the data such as leniency errors, central tendency errors, and errors resulting from the halo effect are the most common types of error among these. These errors arise predominantly from social cognition. The theory behind this is that the way one judges and evaluates other individuals in different contexts is associated with the way one “acquires, processes, and categorizes information”. Rater training is an essential piece of this method. Rater training is the “process of educating raters to make more accurate assessments of performance, typically achieved by reducing the frequency of halo, leniency, and central-tendency errors”.  The training also helps the raters “develop a common frame of reference for evaluation” of individual performance. Researchers and survey respondents have supported the ambition of effectual rater training. However, it must be noted that such training is time-consuming, expensive, and truly functional for only behavioral assessments. One must also consider the effects of rater motivation on judgmental evaluations. Often, rating inflations are seen as a result of rater motivation (i.e. “organizationally induced pressures that compel raters to evaluate raters positively”). Typically, the lack of organizational sanction concerning accurate/inaccurate appraisals, the rater’s desire to guarantee promotions, salary increases, etc., the rater’s inclination to avoid negative reactions from subordinates, motivate the raters to give higher ratings. Also, the observation that higher ratings of the raters reflect favorably upon the rater affect ratings. 

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