A Comparison of Employee Attitudes toward Two Performance Appraisal Systems

This study was designed to compare employee attitudes toward two performance appraisal systems—a trait-rating scale and a performance standards system. Based on prior research, it hypothesized that employees would prefer a performance standards system to the trait-rating scale. Surprisingly, results of the study showed no difference on two factors and significant difference in the opposite direction from that which was hypothesized on a third factor. Factors which may have influenced employee attitudes toward the performance appraisal systems are discussed.