Psychology Question

Given what you now know about rater error, accuracy and rater motivation, what recommendations would you make for the organization you work for, or an organization you have worked for in the past, to increase rater motivation and decrease rater error? In order to answer this question, please describe the three ineffective tactics the organization should stop or avoid and describe the three best practices they should implement in place of those ineffective tactics, given their culture, current system and presenting problems and organizational constraints. These can come from any of the modules in this course.

This paper should be a critical analysis of ALL material you have read and learned so far, and an application of the most fitting research findings to your particular organization.

Explaining U.S. courts of appeals decisions involving performance …
Werner, Jon M;Bolino, Mark C
Personnel Psychology; Spring 1997; 50, 1; ProQuest Central
pg. 1
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Deconstructing Documentation
Examine your assumptions about whether it s
advisable, necessary or a necessary evil.
By Jonathan A. Segal
ocument! Document! Document! If only it were so simple.
While documentation obviously
is vitally important in managing employees’ performance and behavior, its
legal necessity is sometimes overstated.
Indeed, there are times when an employer may be better off, for example,
providing no documentation prior to
terminating an employee. Even when
documentation is desirable, it may cause
more problems than it solves if it does
not record behavior as opposed to subjective and conclusory/W^me/ito about
the behavior.
Is the conventional wisdom about
workplace documentation truly wisdom? Or is it merely conventional? It
involves a hefty dose of both, in my opinion. So let’s get radical and poke at some
of our assumptions about documentation, and see if we can become wiser and
less conventional in the process.
As background for the discussion
that follows, remember that documentation in human resource management
serves several different but related purposes:
• It establishes a record of personnel
actions taken and the reasons why.
Memories fail, managers move on and
other circumstances change. From a
performance management standpoint,
it simply makes practical sense to keep a
written record to guide both the employer’s and tbe employee’s iiiture behavior.
• It informs employees of wbere they
stand with management, what is expected of them in the future and what may
be the consequences if they don’t meet
expected results. In this sense, documentation serves as the “notice” component of what is often referred to in
unionized settings as “industrial due
process.”
* It serves as evidence of the employer’s business reasons for actions taken in
the event an employee takes formal or
informal steps to right a perceived
wrong—confronts a manager, uses a dispute resolution procedure, files an employment discrimination charge or
brings a lawsuit. )
June 2006 HRHagazlna 175
Why Do We Need It?
mentation to support the reason articulated,
the employee may argue successMost employees are “at-will,” and we refully
that
the reason now being given is
mind them in our handbooks that we
not
the
real
reason but rather a pretext
can terminate their employment at any
time, with or without prior notice or for illegal discrimination.
cause, for any or no reason, for a good • Finally, no matter how many times a
reason or a bad reason—just not for an judge may charge a jury in a discrimination case or other wrongful-discharge
illegal reason.
If you don’t need a reason to termi- claim that the case is not about fairness,
nate an at-will employee, why do yon fairness always matters. Most juries canneed documentation to support the rea- not (and perhaps should not) divorce
son you don’t need to have? Have you considerations of fairness from the denot been asked that or a similar question liberation process. If the process is fair
by a senior manager clinging desperate- and perceived as fair, a jury is less likely
to second-guess the ultimate decision.
ly to the at-will principle?
As frustrating as you may find the Documentation adds to both the perquestion, the manager is technically cor- ception and the reality of fairness.
rect. Pretermination notice in the form
of documentation is legally recommended but not legally required for an at-will
^ Online Resources
employee. We as HR professionals (and
For more information and other points
attorneys) may lose some of our credibilof view on documentation and disciity with senior management by confuspline, see the oniine version of this artiing ‘legally required” with “legally reccle at wvyw,shrm.org/hrmagazine
ommended.”
/OSJun^. There you will find links to:
The key is to explain to management
• An NR Magazine article on at-will emplovment and discharge for cause.
why pretermination documentation for
• An 5HRM white paper on practical
an at-will employee is legally recomtips for progressive discipline.
mended. Here are several reasons:
• An SHRM white paper on the correc• First, a termination ordinarily should
tive action process.
not be a surprise. In that context, sur• A sample termination policy and proprise produces anger, and anger can recedure.
sult in visits to plaintiffs’ lawyers.
R>r an archive of past Legal Trends
cohimns, as well as other resources on
Pretermination documentation miniemployment law, visit www.shrm-prg
mizes surprise and slakes some of the
/law.
anger that often provokes an employee’s
decision to begin adversarial proceedings.
These are only some of the legal ben• Second, plaintiffs’ lawyers usually are efits that HR can and should raise when
paid a contingency fee—a percentage of lobbying for pretermination documenthe recovery—as opposed to an hourly tation. What HR should not do is overfee. In other words, if they don’t recover, state the case by suggesting that such
they have worked for nothing. The more documentation is a legal must when
documentation in the employee’s file, dealing with an at-will employee.
the greater the obstacles to recovery. A
Of course, the rules are different in a
plaintiffs lawyer who doesn’t see dollar union shop, where an employer almost
signs may reject the case. When this oc- always needs “just cause” to terminate a
curs, the employee may gain perspective non-probationary employee. Except for
through the insight of a third party.
summary offenses narrowly defined
• Third, to rebut a prima-facie case of (sexual assault, for instance), arbitrators
discrimination, for example, an employ- generally require pretermination docuer cannot simply roar, “I am an at-wiU mentation before they will conclude that
employer and don’t need a reason.” an employee was discharged for “just
Rather, the employer must articulate a cause.”
legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason
In the absence of clear (and progresfor the adverse employment action. In sive) documentation, an arbitrator is
the absence of pretermination docu- likely to treat the intended “divorce” as
June 2006 HRHagiKlM 177
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