Originally found at CFO.
Years after several prominent companies decided to discontinue number-based ratings in performance reviews, the way reviews are conducted has continued to be a hot topic right through 2024.
Last summer the Academy of Management Discoveries published a paper seeking to discover whether organizations should embrace the trend toward narrative (as opposed to numerical) reviews.
The authors conducted experiments involving 1,600 U.S. workers, comparing their reactions to performance feedback when reviews were numerical-only, narrative-only, and a combination of the two.
The findings suggested that “narrative-only feedback was generally perceived as the fairest,” the authors wrote. However, the other two formats were seen as fairer “when the feedback was extremely positive or when recipients were informed about associated monetary outcomes.”
The research also indicated narrative feedback often increased employees’ motivation to improve their work performance.
Continue reading the original article at CFO.
Read the original research in Academy of Management Discoveries.
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