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The role of performance appraisal and reward systems in enhancing employee performance is discussed. A model is presented which argues that feedback is a powerful instrument in performance enhancement. Performance appraisal should provide a clear and realistic indication of the work that must be accomplished, performance expectations, and feedback on performance against expectations. The key dimensions that must be taken into account when designing such a system are outlined.

In this National Board-commissioned study, we examined types of feedback that teacher candidates for certification might receive along with their score reports after completing the Board's assessment process. We designed three standardized forms of feedback and interviewed 29 teachers from the 1993–1994 Early Adolescent/Generalist cohort about their preferences for each of the feedback options and about the inferences that they drew about their performance based on each type. The three feedback formats were (a) cases – extended descriptions of actual performances, annotated with scorer notes; (b) performance syntheses – brief descriptions of the scoring criteria accompanied by a variety of excerpts from candidate materials portraying performances at each level; and (c) illustrative summaries – evaluative descriptions of various candidate responses. Teachers reported that, of the three standardized formats offered to them, they preferred the cases format with its extended descriptions of an actual performance accompanied by annotated scoring notes. In terms of learning effects, candidates drew reasonably accurate inferences about their performance based on both cases and performance syntheses. The central conclusion we reached based on these findings was that feedback needs to be clearly organized around the scoring criteria for the exercise, and that examples of actual performances illustrating the application of the scoring criteria are important. However, teachers also reported that they would have preferred individualized, customized feedback on their own performance, although this option was not offered by the Board. As well, teachers indicated they would have preferred receiving the standardized feedback as “feedfront” to use in guiding them in their teaching and in preparing their assessment materials.

Providing help through feedback is a key task of any manager. In the context of a performance management model, the ways in which managers can effectively provide ongoing performance feedback are explored. It is concluded that basic communication skills, such as attending, reflecting, exploring, self‐disclosing, and acceptance by the supervisor will enhance the effectiveness of feedback.

While the use of computerized decision aids in accounting is widespread, little is known about the effects of decision aids on accounting decision making. However, prior research has often noted the difficulty in getting users to accept and rely upon decision aids (Rose, 2002). A primary area of focus in the design of decision aids that will facilitate user acceptance and reliance has been the development of user-centered interfaces that increase the user's comfort with the aid. This study contributes to this body of research by extending the findings of Ryan, Mims, and Koestner (1983) on the use of informational versus controlling rewards to the context of a decision aid and the interface design. While Ryan et al. focused on the effects of verbal feedback on intrinsic motivation, this study focuses on the impact of text-based feedback from a decision aid on decision performance for a choice task. Additionally, this study examines the effect of task-contingent versus performance-contingent rewards on the impact of the decision aid feedback. The results indicate a differential effect from that of Ryan et al. (1983) when feedback is provided through a decision aid and the focus is on decision performance rather than the precursor condition of intrinsic motivation. Additional research is needed to help explain why the findings obtained by Ryan et al. do not hold in the context of computerized decision aid use when decision performance is measured directly. There are important implications of these findings both in terms of theory development and decision aid design in professional decision-making environments such as accounting.

Prior experimental budgeting research has focused primarily on individuals’ budget setting and little experimental research has examined budgeting in a group setting. Using a controlled experiment, this study extends prior participative budgeting research by examining the effects of aggregation levels of performance feedback and task interdependence on budgetary slack and the effects of different levels of feedback on group performance in a group participative budget setting.

The results suggest that aggregation levels of performance feedback differentially impact budgetary slack and group performance. Providing both group and individual performance feedback increases group performance and reduces budgetary slack compared to providing group performance feedback only. Providing information about other subordinates’ performance further increases group performance and reduces budgetary slack beyond the effects of providing individual workers information only about their own performance. The results indicate that task interdependence also affects the level of budgetary slack. Specifically, high task interdependence groups created more budgetary slack than did low task interdependence groups.

In recent years, practitioners have identified a number of problems with traditional performance management (PM) systems, arguing that PM is broken and needs to be fixed. In this chapter, we review criticisms of traditional PM practices that have been mentioned by journalists and practitioners and we consider the solutions that they have presented for addressing these concerns. We then consider these problems and solutions within the context of extant scholarly research and identify (a) what organizations should do going forward to improve PM practices (i.e., focus on feedback processes, ensure accountability throughout the PM system, and align the PM system with organizational strategy) and (b) what scholars should focus research attention on (i.e., technology, strategic alignment, and peer-to-peer accountability) in order to reduce the science-practice gap in this domain.

Although previous research has investigated how performance feedback may affect firms’ strategic actions, their findings has been inconsistent. The relationship between performance feedback and firms’ strategic activities thus appears complex. Moreover, the authors contend that it may vary with the measurement strategies employed (i.e. social or historical feedback, operationalizations of strategic actions or accounting- and market-based performance indicators) and the national contexts.

Therefore, the current article presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of prior research, including 1,637,817 sample observations from 101 studies that span more than 18 countries.

The results indicate that (1) performance that are below or above aspirational levels generally has a positive relationship with firms’ strategic actions; (2) these relationships are contingent on the implementation forms taken by the key variables, such as performance feedback, strategic actions and performance indicators; and (3) the relationships are much stronger in countries where managerial discretion is greater.

The findings contribute to the clarification of long-standing theoretical and empirical debates regarding the relationship between performance feedback and strategic actions, as well as some pertinent directions for future research.

360° feedback processes have gained popularity as a performance management and career development tool in contemporary organisations. This monograph explores the nature of 360° feedback, investigates the factors which have influenced its emergence and contrasts it with more traditional performance management processes used by organisations. It specifically identifies the benefits and problems associated with 360° feedback in the context of management of performance and employee career development. The monograph considers the issues surrounding different sources of feedback, i.e. peer, subordinate and self. The monograph concludes with a discussion of the issues pertaining to the use of multi‐rater feedback as a tool for performance improvement and career development.

A primary function of the Performance Measurement System is to provide employees with information on their past performance, allowing them to assess the outcomes of their actions, and therefore if they are meeting or not the objectives they are given. This work aims at contributing to the understanding of how the effectiveness of performance feedback information can be improved by defining a set of distinct performance feedback dimensions based on a PMS literature review, and by validating it empirically on an international sample of 164 manufacturing organisations. The proposed dimensions are: relevance as performance feedback orientation to the achievement of objectives; dynamic adjustment of performance feedback; relevance as usefulness of cost performance feedback; relevance as usefulness of non‐cost performance feedback; timeliness of shop‐floor performance feedback; personal performance feedback; and feedback on the overall process performances. The analysis shows that these dimensions are distinct, thus allowing to deal with them separately both in PMS design and audit. As far as the effectiveness of the performance feedback is concerned, it emerges that for several dimensions higher scores are associated to higher operating performances (cost, time and quality), but in one case this only holds for managers and in another one only for supervisors.