Evaluating Our Evaluations: Recognizing and Countering Performance Evaluation Pitfalls

Selecting the right person for the right job at the right time is a persistent challenge faced by organizations. Performance evaluations are a fundamental component of selection processes, and their use in the Army is nearly as old as the service itself. Some early evaluation systems consisted of a list of officers in a regiment with observations noted for each ranging from a good-natured man to merely good nothing promising to a man of whom all unite in speaking ill. While our current evaluation form adds a bit more science to the art of performance evaluation, a constant in the Army's performance evaluation system is the reliance on raters to render their judgment on the potential of a subordinate for service at higher levels. In reality, the Army's performance appraisal system is a multiyear assessment that is prone to disparities between senior raters and the profiles they maintain. As this article demonstrates, there are structural and cognitive biases that may affect the rating an officer receives.