Rater Bias and Incentive Provision

The tendency of supervisors to judge an employee as either good or bad and then to seek out evidence supporting that earlier established opinion is regarded as one of the major problems of performance appraisal. We investigate the implications of this rater bias in a dynamic moral hazard model with a wealth‐constrained agent. Although rater bias weakens the agent's incentives to exert effort in late periods, at the same time it strengthens implicit incentives in early periods. Under the optimal contract, as long as rater bias is not overly strong, its adverse effect on late‐period incentives is fully offset by exploitation of stronger early‐period incentives and thereby leaves the principal's profits unchanged.     

自我监控、互惠机会与考核目的对绩效评价结果的影响 ——一项准实验研究

绩效考核是人力资源管理的重要工作,考核结果出现偏差是绩效评价常见的问题。从评价者人格特质和考核情境因素入手,分析评价者的心理过程和行为表现,为理解考核结果偏差提供了新的视角。以学生评教准实验模拟绩效评价活动,数据分析表明:评价者自我监控水平、评价者和被评价者之间的互惠机会、评价目的对评价结果有独立的显著影响;自我监控水平和互惠机会、自我监控水平和考核目的、自我监控水平、互惠机会和考核目的对评价结果有交互影响;高自我监控水平的评价者,在有互惠机会和管理性考核时,有更多的高评行为。研究证实了评价者人格特质和考核情境因素对考核结果的主效应和交互效应,对指导绩效考核实践有一定的价值。     

A new approach to inter-rater agreement through stochastic orderings: the discrete case

We wish to study inter-rater agreement comparing groups of observers who express their ratings on a discrete or ordinal scale. The starting point is that of defining what we mean by “agreement”. Given d observers, let the scores they assign to a given statistical unit be expressed as a d-vector in the real space. We define a deterministic ordering among these vectors, which expresses the degree of the raters’ agreement. The overall scoring of the raters on the sample space will be a d-dimensional random vector. We then define an associated partial ordering among the random vectors of the ratings, illustrate a number of its properties, and look at order-preserving functions (agreement measures). In this paper we also show how to test the hypothesis of greater agreement against the unrestricted hypothesis, and the hypothesis of equal agreement against the hypothesis that an agreement ordering holds. The test is applied to real data on two medical observers rating clinical guidelines.     

Agreement between an isolated rater and a group of raters

The agreement between two raters judging items on a categorical scale is traditionally assessed by Cohen's kappa coefficient. We introduce a new coefficient for quantifying the degree of agreement between an isolated rater and a group of raters on a nominal or ordinal scale. The group of raters is regarded as a whole, a reference or gold-standard group with its own heterogeneity. The coefficient, defined on a population-based model, requires a specific definition of the concept of perfect agreement. It has the same properties as Cohen's kappa coefficient and reduces to the latter when there is only one rater in the group. The new approach overcomes the problem of consensus within the group of raters and generalizes Schouten's index. The method is illustrated on published syphilis data and on data collected from a study assessing the ability of medical students in diagnostic reasoning when compared with expert knowledge.     

The effect of rater accountability on performance ratings: A meta-analytic review

Although rater accountability is recognized as a potentially important characteristic of performance rating contexts, due to discrepant findings in the literature, its effect on performance ratings is unclear. This issue was addressed in the present study using meta-analytic methods to synthesize findings across 35 samples. Consistent with expectations, the effect of rater accountability on performance ratings varied as a function of accountability source, such that ratings were substantively influenced by accountability only when raters were held accountable by the ratee versus a superior. This effect was consistent whether accountability was introduced through identification or justification manipulations. Further, we did not detect any evidence suggesting that findings varied as a function of rating direction or study setting. Implications for performance appraisal research and practice are discussed.     

Practical POMDP-based test mechanism for quality assurance in volunteer crowdsourcing

ABSTRACT

In volunteer crowdsourcing, tasks are published via an open call and completed by many workers without reward. Under the traditional volunteer crowdsourcing paradigm, workers with diverse levels of reliabilities are chosen indiscriminately; moreover, each worker’s performance may change over the time. Thus, the quality of task completions is a key concern in volunteer crowdsourcing. To improve the task completion quality (i.e. the accuracy of task answers), we adopt an adaptive test task (with a true answer) insertion approach to detect a worker’s performance dynamically, thereby ensuring that normal tasks (with unknown true answers) are assigned when this worker is currently deemed reliable via testing. To decide when to route test tasks to detect a worker’s performance or assign normal tasks to be completed in a high quality state, we proposed a Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP) based test mechanism without any complicated parameter estimation, which is more practical for real-world volunteer crowdsourcing applications. In addition, we also designed rejection strategies to reject malicious workers and dubious answers. Experiments on real datasets demonstrate that the proposed test mechanism performs better in the accuracy of task answers, compared with benchmark methods.     

Grandiose branding: World-class aim and its organizational consequences

Branding has become a strategic tool for university management in competition for students, faculty, and funding. In this study, we explore university branding in its extreme form of grandiose branding and ask How can grandiose branding initiate a process that prompts ethically and morally questionable practices in organizations? Grandiose branding is characterized by an excessive use of superlatives that frame higher education institutions as “world-class universities.” Through a self- and autoethnographic single-case study conducted in a business school, our study shows that branding efforts that do not align with an organization’s actual quality and performance can lead to a counterproductive cycle of camouflaging top management’s failures and justifying ethically and morally questionable actions directed towards the institution’s primary stakeholders. The study contributes to the earlier literature on grandiosity in the context of higher education by taking a process perspective and explores the implications of grandiose branding from rhetoric through implementation.     

Multirater and Gender Differences in the Measurement of Political Skill in Organizations

Organizational political skill is an essential component of a leader's success. The purpose of the current study was to ascertain whether differences existed in how individuals rated themselves and were rated by others on 13 political skills using the Brandon Partners and Seldman Learning Organizational Savvy Multi‐Rater Assessment. Over 4,500 individuals completed an online self‐rater assessment to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. A sample of 131 individuals with 1,056 observer ratings completed an online multirater assessment to address the research questions. The dependent variables were the 13 political skill set average scores and the independent variables included gender and rater group. Significant rater group differences in multirater assessment of political acumen were found in all skill sets. The greatest difference was between the self‐ratings, always the lowest, and the ratings of the four rater groups. No significant gender differences in self‐assessment of organizational political skill were found in the 13 skill sets. Significant gender differences in ratings by others were found with females scoring higher than males in two areas. The findings contribute to our understanding of gender differences regarding the perception of political skill. Organizations can use this knowledge in educational programs to elevate leader performance.     

Network advantage’s effect on exit performance: examining venture capital’s inter-organizational networks

This study investigates how a venture capital’s network affects its exit performance. While most network research focuses on individual characteristics such as centrality and density, this study explores the overall advantage that results from holding a network position (i.e., a network advantage). This network advantage is examined at the syndicate level, which is a group of organizations. Within this context, the study contemplates the syndicate’s network advantage and hones in on the syndicate’s network advantage diversity, because the composition of members’ network advantage within the syndicate as well as the syndicate’s network advantage itself may affect the syndicate’s performance. To do this, first it is hypothesized that both a venture capital syndicate’s network advantage and its network advantage diversity are positively associated with its exit performance. Next, the study predicts that a syndicate’s network advantage diversity negatively moderates the positive relationship between the syndicate’s network advantage and its exit performance. Then a two stage least squares analysis of 1137 venture capital syndicate investments largely confirms the predicted effects. A syndicate’s network advantage is shown to contribute to its exit performance. A syndicate’s network advantage diversity clearly weakens the positive relationship between the syndicate’s network advantage and performance, while its direct effect on performance is not significantly supported. Overall, these findings show that a syndicate’s network advantage and its diversity are critical determinants of its exit performance in the venture capital industry.

     

Exploring supply management status,internal collaboration and operating performance

An important internal link in the supply chain is between supply managers and their internal customers. These individuals must collaborate to determine purchase specifications, develop sourcing strategies, ensure supplier performance, and maintain effective supplier relationships. Using power and social networking as the theoretical lenses, we develop and test a conceptual model examining the supply management function’s status, supply manager’s networking behavior, collaboration with the internal customer, and operating performance (lower cost, better quality, faster delivery, and consistent delivery). We also examine the mediating effect of collaboration and networking behavior on the positive effect of status and operating performance. Data gathered in an online survey of supply management professionals are examined using path analysis. Results show that without including the mediators, supply management status is directly related to all four operating performance measures. It is also positively related to collaboration with the internal customer and networking behavior. Contrary to expectations, the supply manager’s networking behavior is not related to collaboration with the internal customer. Collaboration is positively related to all four operating performance measures. However, the supply manager’s networking behavior is only related to one operating performance measure, better quality. Mediation analysis shows that supply management status has a direct effect on faster delivery performance beyond what is explained by collaboration and the supply manager’s networking behavior. The findings suggest that organizations should look for ways to elevate the status of the supply management function to improve internal collaboration and operating performance.     

The social context of performance appraisal and appraisal reactions: A meta‐analysis

This study reviews and meta‐analyzes the literature on the social context of performance appraisal. Results indicate that aspects of rater‐ratee relationship quality (i.e., supervisor satisfaction, supervisor support, supervisor trust) are strongly related to ratee reactions to performance appraisals. Rater‐ratee relationship quality is more strongly related to appraisal reactions than appraisal participation or performance ratings. Integrating social exchange theory with procedural justice theory, this article tested whether or not the relationship quality–appraisal reactions relationship was due to relationships between relationship quality and instrumental resources for the ratee (i.e., appraisal participation and rating favorability). When controlling for relationships between these resources and appraisal reactions, a direct path between relationship quality and reactions was significant, supporting a relational model of the exchange between appraisal partners. The relationship quality–appraisal reaction relationship was not moderated by performance rating favorability or appraisal participation. In total, these results highlight the importance of relationship quality to employee reactions to performance appraisal—and the importance of ratee reactions as an important resource in the social exchange between appraisal partners. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

感知质量与实际质量关系对企业策略的影响初探

感知质量是顾客对产品质量的主观判断,企业在决策时需要考虑感知质量的影响。本文对顾客感知质量及其影响因素进行了研究,总结了影响感知质量的三个主要方面,对感知质量和实际质量的差异进行了比较,得到两者在不同水平上的四种关系,对应地将产品分为四个类型,并探讨了针对不同类型的产品企业应该选择的策略。企业需要通过质量活动提高实际质量,同时通过宣传营销活动提高感知质量,形成优质产品,以保持企业活力和市场竞争力。     

How does a firm’s management of greenhouse gas emissions influence its economic performance? Analyzing effects through demand and productivity in Japanese manufacturing firms

This paper analyzes how a firm’s management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions affects its economic performance. The theoretical model we derive from Cobb–Douglas production and inverse demand functions predict that in conducting GHG emissions management, a firm will enhance its economic performance because it promotes an increase in demand for its output and improves its productivity. The estimation results, using panel data on Japanese manufacturing firms during the period 2007–2008, support the view that a firm’s GHG emissions management enhances a firm’s economic performance through an increase in demand and improvement in productivity. However, the latter effect is conditional. Although a firm’s efforts to maintain lower GHG emissions improves productivity, efforts to reduce GHG emissions further does not always improve it, especially for energy-intensive firms. Because firms attempting to maintain lower GHG emissions are more likely to improve their productivity, there is a possibility that firms with high GHG emissions can also enhance economic performance by reducing their emissions in the long term, even if additional costs are incurred. In addition, better GHG emissions management increases the demand of environmentally conscious customers because a product’s life cycle GHG emissions in the upper stream of the supply chain influence those in the lower stream, and customers evaluate the suppliers’ GHG emissions management in terms of green supply-chain management.     

贸易政策不确定性与中国产品出口的数量、质量效应——基于自由贸易协定的政策背景

基于中国缔结自由贸易协定的政策背景,试图从贸易政策不确定性的新视角来解释中国的出口扩张以及出口升级。通过将贸易政策不确定性引入到质量异质性模型,推理出贸易政策不确定性对出口扩张及出口升级的关系等式,运用2002—2014年高度精细化的微观企业数据进行实证检验。研究发现,贸易政策不确定性下降有利于促进出口扩张和出口升级,OFDI是发挥贸易政策不确定性效应的重要作用机制。自由贸易战略是我国应对当前“逆全球化”国际局势的重要对策,贸易政策不确定性为我国维持出口扩张和实现出口升级提供了新思路。     

Reviewing interfirm relationship quality from a supply chain management perspective

With the overlap of the interfirm relationship quality and supply chain management research in mind, this paper reviewed 100 recent, scientific, English-language papers on interfirm relationship quality based on a categorisation schema derived from a conceptual framework of supply chain management. We aim to contribute to the existing supply chain management literature by providing an insight into the connections of supply chain performance with buyer–supplier relationship quality from the relationship quality scholars’ perspective. Through content analysis, frequency and contingency analysis, we evaluated how the three relationship quality dimensions—information, operational, and relational dimensions—and the three types of supply chain performance—financial and market, operational, and relational performance have been reflected in the current interfirm relationship quality papers and how the scholars have tended to link them to each other. The results reveal that relational dimension plays a key role in SC relationship management and influences performance significantly. Information dimension will affect performance indirectly through relational dimension. However, the impact of the operational dimension on performance varies. In addition, buyers’ and suppliers’ perspectives on the relational drivers of their financial performance may differ. Based on the findings, we suggest promising avenues for future investigation of supply chain relationship and performance.

     

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MANAGERIAL RATING OF SUPERVISORY PERFORMANCE

The performance of first-line supervisors normally has to be assessed without reference to objective indices. In practice, assessment is often carried out on the basis of ratings by immediate superiors. This paper examines ratings of supervisors' performance by their own managers in two Birmingham plants. A combination of factors together account for approaching half of the variation in these ratings. Only one of the predictive factors, the degree of personal flexibility expressed by supervisors, is independent of the managerial rater. Ratings of supervisory performance in fact appear to tell as much about the rater as they do about the person being rated. The findings of this study also suggest that the highly rated supervisor is the one who successfully protects his superior from the need to be involved with shopfloor activity and its disturbances.     

柴油机气门弹簧制造工艺改进方法

柴油机气门弹簧是发动机的关键零件,它的质量直接影响到发动机的动态性能,优质弹簧对一台柴油机的性能影响不容小觑。文章阐述了柴油机气门弹簧的制造工艺,改进设计了一条从退磁到包装自动化生产线,并提出采用U型生产方式来解决目前生产车间存在的一些问题。     

ISO 9000/1994, ISO 9001/2000 and TQM: The performance debate revisited

The debate about the impact of ISO 9000/1994 on performance has been waging since its inception. While there is a general agreement regarding the positive impact of TQM on performance, there has been less agreement among the academics about the impact of ISO 9000/1994. Perhaps in response to such debate, the new ISO 9001/2000 has appeared purporting to be more in line with the TQM philosophy. As of now, how this 2000 version actually affects performance is yet to be explored. In this study, we compare the implementation of ISO 9000/1994 and ISO 9001/2000 as representing two different efforts to implement quality management practices. We evaluate its impact on company performance with a sample of 713 Spanish industrial companies. We also examine if the 2000 version of ISO is taking us closer to the implementation of TQM. Further, we depart from the past studies methodologically by considering performance as a formative construct rather than a reflective construct. Based on the mean and covariance structural (MACS) analyses, we conclude that ISO 9001/2000 certified companies do not perform noticeably better than ISO 9000/1994 or non-certified companies. However, we find that ISO 9001/2000 certified companies apply TQM at a higher level than ISO 9000/1994 certified companies, but whether they actually perform better is less clear.     

中国高等教育发展中的逆性现象及质量管理分析

自20世纪90年代末以来,日益扩大的高等教育规模,使得我国高等教育质量问题日益凸显,高等教育质量的保证与提高成为了高等教育必须面临的首要问题。本文初步分析认为我国高等教育在未来一段时间内仍会继续在量上发展,同时伴随着质的提高。但同时我们应对高等教育发展中的一些"逆"性现象进行关注,并深入其中,分析其本质。此外,我们针对上述情况,提出自己的看法与意见,力求通过一些有效措施,在客观上促进我国未来高等教育的发展。