Publication Date

12-1979

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

L.M. Hanser, D.L. Roenker, Sam McFarland

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

Accurate and objective performance appraisals are absolutely necessary due to their utility in important personnel decisions such as promotion, demotion and training. This study examines the contaminating effects of sex bias on performance evaluations and it's relationship to the sex-stereotype of the job and levels of performance. Unlike previous studies, this study not only examines these effects at the extremes of performance, but at average levels as well. Also, unlike previous studies, the subjects empirically determined the sex-typed nature of the jobs and the levels of performance within those jobs rather than the experimenter having made a priori decisions. Hypothetical employees in male, neutral, and female sex-typed jobs who performed at high, average, and low levels were rated on four performance dimensions and one overall performance dimension. There were no main effects for either the sex of the rater or the sex of the ratee. There was, however, an interaction between the level of performance and the sex-type of the job that was significant on four of the five dimensions. Possible explanations are developed within an Equity Theory framework for the findings.

Disciplines

Applied Behavior Analysis | Business | Human Resources Management | Performance Management | Personality and Social Contexts | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Social Psychology

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