When planning a criterion development that would help in evaluation of organizational, team or individual performance, one has to consider several issues. Before and during this whole process, one must consider and address ethical, social and legal issues that come along with this process (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Criterion development and employee performance evaluation must be done in a legal manner where transparency is guaranteed and with no hidden objectives. Discrimination during evaluation of could result in legal cases. There are laws that guide and protect employees against discrimination during performance assessment, for instance, the Civil Rights Act. To avoid legal complications, a criterion of employee performance evaluation must be objective, be based on employee behavior and have a direct relation with the job. Furthermore, the rate must be within the control of the criterion used. A good criterion focuses on specific functions. An employee can sue the employer if they feel the performance assessment process was biased (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Ethical issues
Criterion development and the process of performance evaluation must adhere to ethical issues. Social issues include the welfare of employees being assessed and all other stakeholders in the organization.
Employee privacy
The criterion of performance evaluation must be designed in a manner that it would not affect the privacy of employees during assessment. To achieve this, the criterion must focus solely on the employees’ performance rather than their personal life. The person conducting the performance evaluation process must conduct it professionally. For example, the supervisor conducting the evaluation process must only ask questions related to the job and how the employee feels about the job. Asking personal questions such as background is unnecessary and must be avoided (Schultz & Schultz, 2005).
Other ethical issues include the conditions in which the performance process is done. What the organization does with the outcomes of the assessment process is also an ethical issue. Employees must be informed of the evaluation technique, the importance of the evaluation, and what the organization intends to do with these results of performance evaluation (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
Therefore, criterion development and employees performance evaluation must be done carefully to abide by the legal and ethical issues. If the process is done legally and ethically, the results will be beneficial to both the organization and employees (Schultz & Schultz, 2010).
References
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2010). Psychology and Work Today. An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: Pearson Education.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2005). Theories of Personality (8, illustrated ed.). London: Cengage Learning.
