Unequal-Equal Supervisors

Unequal-Equal Supervisors

Jennifer Meadows

MGT 212

October 17, 2012

Dr. Sheri Beasley

Unequal-Equal Supervisors

Introduction

Hubert Johnson has a big problem on his hands. He has been with his company for thirty years and is the department head. He has two employees; Harriet who has been with the company for fifteen years but is slipping a little performance wise as a supervisor, and Neil who has been with the company for six years and is doing a fantastic job as a supervisor.

Hubert has to conduct performance appraisals on both Harriet and Neil on an annual basis and just did one ten months ago. However, Hubert was displeased with the idea of delivering a negative appraisal to anyone, so he ended up rating both Harriet and Neil about the same. When the employees were confronted with their ratings, they both seemed satisfied.

About six months ago, the business really started to slow down and layoffs and demotions were being enforced until sales start to pick up again. Hubert needs to now decide if he is going to demote Harriet or Neil, but based on their performance, Hubert wants to keep Neil over Harriet. According to their appraisals, there is no difference between the two. This has happened in the past and the company would give the spot to the person with the most seniority. Hubert now needs to make a decision on whether to keep Harriet or Neil.

Ways Inaccuracy of Performance Ratings Created Problems

There are multiple ways that inaccuracy of Hubert's performance ratings has created problems. To execute an accurate performance appraisal on employees, Hubert needed to perform "the process of determining how well employees do their jobs relative to a standard and communicating that information to them" (Mathis & Jackson, 2011 p.320). Hubert did not carry out the proper performance appraisal on Harriet and Neil. He made it inaccurate by making the central tendency, leniency, and strictness errors which will cause problems down the line. "No two employees are judged on exactly the same basis; and bias, or the appearance of bias, will taint all your decisions" (Bruce, 2010 para.5). These problems are now upon Hubert and it is impairing his ability to make an accurate decision.

Central Tendency Error

The central tendency error "occurs when a rater gives all employees a score within a narrow range in the middle of the scale" (Mathis & Jackson, 2011 p.347). Hubert decided to put aside the fact that he would have to give negative feedback to Harriet and Neil in some sort of fashion because he hated the unpleasantness of it. Whether or not it would be negative, Hubert still needed to provide some type of constructive criticism to both employees. There is always room to improve in any job position. So it's a good idea to point out the strong and weak points to each employee in their job description to improve their abilities and skills. This error will create a problem because Neil has exceeded expectations and is not benefiting from it and Harriet has been below standards and is getting the same rating as Neil.

Strictness Error

Hubert also has shown signs of carrying out the strictness error. The strictness error is "when a manager uses only the lower part of the scale to rate employees" (Mathis & Jackson, 2011 p.348). This is where Hubert would rate both Harriet and Neil lower on the scale. This is a problem and in turn is not fair to Neil, as his performance has been up to par and extremely impressive as to where Harriet has shown signs of slipping and not being too good of a supervisor for the company. Hubert is appraising Neil at the lower end along with Harriet when he should be above Harriet.

Leniency Error

This is where Hubert would perhaps take it too easy on both Neil and Harriet. The leniency error is when Hubert would have "ratings of all employees fall at the high end of the scale" (Mathis & Jackson, 2011 p.347). This would not be fair to Neil but would benefit Harriet by promoting the fact that even having