Does Evaluator Experience Mitigate the Bias of Likeability on Performance Evaluations?

• In Event: Management Accounting: Incentives and Evaluations

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard is often used in a subjective manner to evaluate the performance of a subordinate manager. As such, individual evaluators can exhibit a bias in the process. One such bias is the likeability bias, wherein a performance evaluation is influenced by whether a subordinate manager is likeable or not. This study investigates whether the level of performance and the experience of the evaluator affects the performance evaluation process. I find that the likeability bias exists in BSC evaluations. Further, an interaction between performance and likeability exists when the evaluator has less work experience. The interaction does not exist when the evaluator has more years of work experience.

Author

• Michael Petersen, North Dakota State University