Reference Cho, I., Berry, C. M., Payne, S. C., & Lee, P. (2023).Too good to be true? Are supervisor-perspective ratings a valid substitute for actual supervisor ratings?. The Journal of applied psychology, 108(1), 167–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001018 Getting supervisors to rate their employees directly is costly and time-consuming. Thus, research psychologists often use supervisor-perspective ratings: asking employees to rate how they think their supervisor would rate their own job performance. How similar would the employee’s and supervisor’s ratings be? Self-ratings may be less accurate due to self-enhancement or lacking self-insight. Researchers questioned whether people rating themselves from their boss’s view were equally accurate to their supervisor's ratings. Researchers compared many studies from different countries in one analysis comparing actual supervisor ratings and employees rating themselves as they think their supervisor would. They selected 26 primary studies that compared participants’ measuring their expectations of their supervisor’s ratings with measurements of their supervisor’s actual ratings. Results? Supervisor-perspective ratings typically did not match actual supervisor ratings. There was an even greater mismatch when rating “citizenship behaviors”—like, thoughtfulness for others, in contrast to job tasks (especially in the more group-focused cultures where supervisors were less likely to give feedback on non-job performance.) Avoid misunderstandings and poor decisions about employee performances! Do not use supervisor-perspective ratings to replace actual supervisor ratings, especially in workplace environments with complex behaviors and cultural dynamics.

Written by Kristin M. Harris, Ph.D.