Wendell Hess
Team Building and Group Process
Peer Evaluation Discussion

List some possible biases in peer evaluations. In addition, discuss possible ways to eliminate rater and ratee bias from evaluation processes?

Given the diverse nature of teams and the increased span of control from restructuring, managers and supervisors often are not in a position to perform the traditional supervisor-employee performance appraisal (May & Gueldenzoph, 2006). These situations may require peers to evaluate one another. Though peer evaluations can be an effective way to evaluate individuals and teams, biases can stand in the way of an honest outcome.

One of the possible biases that could be encountered in a peer evaluation is the Homogeneity Bias. According to May (2008), this error is a tendency of raters to judge more favorably those perceived to be similar to themselves in personality, attitudes, or background. Another bias that can be encountered in peer evaluations is the Halo Bias. This bias is the belief that an individual with one good trait has many good traits. Forgas (2011) states, an example would be judging a good-looking person as having a more desirable personality. The Bandwagon Bias is another obstacle that can be faced in peer evaluations. This is defined as the tendency to believe or go along with what the majority of the group believes. Though these aren’t all of the biases that could be faced in peer evaluations, they can certainly be avoided.

Research has shown that one way to avoid peer biases altogether is to develop a behaviorally anchored rating scale. Behaviorally anchored rating scales provide a way to measure how an individual’s behavior in various performance categories contributes to achieving the goals of the team or organization of which the individual is a member (Ohland, Loughry, Woehr, Bullard, Felder, Finelli &