PARTICIPATION IN THE PERFORMANCE-APPRAISAL PROCESS AND EMPLOYEE REACTIONS - A METAANALYTIC REVIEW OF FIELD INVESTIGATIONS

The relationship between participation in the performance appraisal pr ocess and various employee reactions was explored through the meta-ana lysis of 27 studies containing 32 individual samples. The overall rela tionship (rho) between participation and employee reactions, corrected for unreliability, was .61. Various conceptualizations and operationa lizations of participation and employee reactions also were discussed and analyzed. Overall, appraisal participation was most strongly relat ed to satisfaction, and value-expressive participation (i.e., particip ation for the sake of having one's ''voice'' heard) had a stronger rel ationship with most of the reaction criteria than did instrumental par ticipation (i.e., participation for the purpose of influencing the end result). The results are discussed within the framework of organizati onal justice.