A preliminary investigation of the sources of information used by raters when appraising performance

Raters (N = 135) from six organizations completed a survey regarding the so urces of information used when appraising an employee's performance. Result s indicated that multiple sources of information are used, and that raters are active seekers, as well as passive recipients of performance informatio n. The perceived usefulness of volunteered versus requested second-hand per formance information was found to differ across the various information sou rces. Also, the number of sources of performance information used by a rate r was found to be related to rater characteristics (e.g., job level, number of subordinates). Implications for performance appraisal research and prac tice are discussed.