Peer reviews - Employees' dual roles as raters and recipients

This study investigated nurses' reactions to a peer rating system. Their le vel of system acceptance was assessed with both quantitative and qualitativ e measures. In addition, participants were asked, in an open response forma t, what issues and concerns they had regarding peer appraisals. The results indicate that those who perceived the system to be more for developmental feedback purposes, who had positive experiences as raters or as recipients of peer feedback, and who felt the system gave them a chance to voice conce rns about performance reported higher levels of acceptance. Content analysi s of the participants' comments revealed four main concerns: the need for a dditional training, biases believed to influence peer ratings, the time req uired to perform the ratings, and the criteria used for those ratings. Acce ptance, perceived purpose, recipient outcomes, and voice were related to th e specific concerns participants mentioned. The theoretical and practical i mplications of this research are discussed.