Selected Research:
Evaluation Bias Toward Rivals: Evidence from 360-degree feedback

Abstract: 

Using 360-degree feedback records from a Japanese manufacturing company, this study examines how rivalry causes bias among peer evaluations. Rivalry is captured by the congruence of attributes such as the proximity of promotion probability, affiliation, and year of joining the company, while bias is measured by the discrepancy between actual and expected peer evaluation scores conditional on evaluations by supervisors and subordinates. The results show that negative biases arise (a) when the absolute difference between the promotion probabilities of the rater and the ratee is small and/or (b) when the rater is in the same department as the ratee. These downward biases are consistent with tournament theory. To avoid evaluation biases in 360-degree feedback, the company in this study clearly states that the results will not be used to determine compensation, promotion, or other treatment. Even with such considerations, negative evaluation bias may still occur when evaluating a rival. Thus, a tradeoff exists: raters who are close to the ratee in terms of attributes and work location have more information about the ratee, but their evaluations are subject to a downward bias that reduces information accuracy.