Social Ties and Subjective Performance Evaluations: An Empirical Investigation

Kathrin Breuer (), Petra Nieken and Dirk Sliwka
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Kathrin Breuer: University of Cologne

No 4913, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We empirically investigate possible distortions in subjective performance evaluations. A key hypothesis is that evaluations are more upward biased the closer the social ties between supervisor and appraised employee. We test this hypothesis with a company data set from a call center organization which contains not only subjective assessments but also several more objective measures of performance. Controlling for these performance measures, we find strong evidence that evaluations are upwards biased in smaller teams and some evidence that supervisors give better ratings to employees they themselves have evaluated before.

Keywords: subjective performance evaluation; bias; social ties; team size; favoritism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-lab and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in: Review of Managerial Science, 2013, 7 (2), 141-157

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