Purpose

This paper aims to analyze challenges of subjective performance evaluation (SPE) and their effects on team performance. It focuses on discretionary bonus allocations in teams and challenges driven by cognitive biases on the superior or the employee side. This is important as efficient teamwork is a relevant source of competitive advantages in firms, and firms often rely on teams to coordinate various, mutually supportive organizational activities.

Design/methodology/approach

The author analyzes results that have recently been discussed in the literature and link them to each other to create a more holistic picture about potential performance effects of SPE. Based on the analyses, the author develops avenues for future research and point out open questions.

Findings

Exploring employees’ fairness perceptions in team settings in which there is no clear standard for a “fair” team bonus allocation, the author finds that perceived fairness of team bonus allocation may decrease under SPE because employees interpret the “fairness” of the bonus allocation from an egocentric perspective. Such decrease in perceived fairness can eventually even lead to decreased team performance. Likewise, on the superior side, more complex, but highly relevant team can cause cognitive biases of superiors in assessing employee performance, thereby decreasing the potentially positive effects of SPE on team performance.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature by analyzing recently discovered challenges of SPE in teams and linking them to each other to draw more general conclusions about the performance effects of SPE. For practice, my findings imply that firms may want to be cautious when evaluating the potential effects of SPE – as it is made by human beings with their cognitive biases. For research, the paper opens up new research possibilities and points out open questions.

中文翻译：

---

团队绩效评估中主观性的挑战

目的

本文旨在分析主观绩效评估（SPE）的挑战及其对团队绩效的影响。它侧重于团队中的酌情奖金分配以及由上级或员工方面的认知偏见驱动的挑战。这一点很重要，因为高效的团队合作是企业竞争优势的相关来源，而企业通常依靠团队来协调各种相互支持的组织活动。

设计/方法/方法

作者分析了最近在文献中讨论的结果，并将它们相互联系起来，以更全面地了解 SPE 的潜在性能影响。基于这些分析，作者为未来的研究开辟了道路，并指出了悬而未决的问题。

发现

在“公平”的团队奖金分配没有明确标准的团队环境中探索员工的公平感知，作者发现在 SPE 下，团队奖金分配的公平感知可能会降低，因为员工从以自我为中心的观点。这种感知公平性的降低最终甚至会导致团队绩效的下降。同样，在上级方面，更复杂但高度相关的团队可能会导致上级在评估员工绩效时出现认知偏差，从而降低 SPE 对团队绩效的潜在积极影响。

原创性/价值

本文通过分析团队中最近发现的 SPE 挑战并将它们相互关联以得出关于 SPE 性能影响的更一般性结论，从而为文献做出贡献。在实践中，我的发现意味着公司在评估 SPE 的潜在影响时可能需要谨慎——因为它是由具有认知偏见的人类造成的。对于研究，该论文开辟了新的研究可能性并指出了悬而未决的问题。