Chapter 17: The Assessment of Performance: Focusing Attention on Context, Process, and Group Issues

Source: Reprinted from Heneman, R.L. & von Hippel, C. (1996). The Assessment of Job Performance: Focusing Attention on Context, Process and Group Issues. In D. Lewin, D.J.B. Mitchell, & M.A. Zaidi (Eds.), Handbook of Human Resource Management (pp. 587-617). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press with permission from Elsevier Science.

Since the early 1980s there have been two profound shifts in the manner in which job performance is assessed in organizations and is studied by organizational researchers. Specifically, there is now less emphasis on the performance assessment instrument and greater emphasis has been placed on measurement of group rather than individual performance. Prior to the 1980s organizations were primarily concerned with trying to develop the best possible instrument with which to make performance assessments (Patten, 1982). In a complementary fashion, researchers focused on making instruments reliable and free from bias (Landy & Farr, 1980). The focus today is no longer on the performance assessment instrument, but has instead shifted to understanding the processes used in making assessments of performance (Ilgen, Barnes-Farrel, & McKellin, 1993) and the context in which these processes take place (Murphy & Cleveland, 1991).