Strengths-Based Performance Appraisal & Processes of Implementation

         

Most performance feedback in organizations is based on a deficit approach in which person’s weaknesses are seen as their greatest opportunity for development (Van Woerkom et  al., 2016).

However, developments in the field of positive psychology (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) have inspired practitioners and scholars to promote the benefits of detecting and using individual strengths as a pathway to performance improvement. Individual strengths refer to trait-like characteristics that are energizing to the user and allow people to perform at their personal best (Wood et  al., 2011).

If individual strengths are recognized by oneself and by others, they can be refined through practice and by developing related knowledge and skills, so that they can ultimately be productively applied. Recent studies have indicated that it is the use of strengths, no matter what these strengths are, that leads to valuable outcomes, such as job satisfaction, work engagement, wellbeing, personal growth, and higher levels of work performance (see reviews by Ghielen et  al., 2018; Miglianico et  al., 2020).

Even though every person has strengths, many people have trouble identifying their strong points (Buckingham and Clifton, 2001) and tend to pay more attention to their weaknesses than to their strengths (Rozin and Royzman, 2001; Roberts et al., 2005).

Individual strengths might come so naturally to a person that they are used unconsciously or might be seen as “normal” or something that “everyone does” (van Woerkom and de Bruijn, 2016).

Strengths-based performance appraisal helps workers in raising awareness of their own strengths by paying attention to and expressing appreciation for their unique qualities. Research has indicated that particularly feedback from others regarding ones strengths at the times when one is at his or her best is effective in raising strengths awareness (Cable et al., 2015).

This may be partly so because this feedback produces strong positive emotions, thereby inducing changes in self-knowledge (McAdams, 1988; Poole et al., 1989). Strengths-based performance appraisal also supports future strengths use by discussing how strengths could be developed even further and how these strengths could be applied more effectively in the work context.

A strengths-based performance appraisal does not imply that performance problems performance can no longer be discussed or that supervisors can only be positive (van Woerkom and de Bruijn, 2016). It does however mean that the supervisor makes an effort to discover the unique qualities of employees and to maximize the opportunity for employees to carry out work activities in a manner that plays to their strengths. (Woerkom MA & Kroon B, 2020)

SBPA processes of implementation

According to the Yam OB & Kluger N, (2011) the SBPA contains the following six stages:

1) The supervisor–supervisee meeting, which includes success stories told by the subordinate using the FFI (Kluger & Nir, 2009), and enthusiasm stories that are told by the supervisor about the subordinate using the reflected best self (Roberts, Dutton, et al., 2005);

 

2) Filling out questionnaires by both the subordinate and the supervisor, and preparation of reports to be used by the supervisor;

3) A second supervisor–supervisee meeting, involving a strength-based evaluation discussion where the supervisor and subordinate find new ways to use existing strengths, and agreement on goals using the win– win approach;

4) Creating an organizational map of strengths;

5) Staging a party to celebrate the process and the strengths;

6) Implementing a follow-up process. Below, we trace the development of the SBPA and describe its process flow in detail.

List of references

Ø  Cable D, Lee JL, Gino F and Staats BR, 2015. How best-self activation ifluences emotions, physiology and employment relationships. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper (16-029).

Ø  Ghielen  STS, van Woerkom M and Meyers MC, 2018.  Promoting positive outcomes through strengths interventions: a literature review. J. Posit. Psychol. 13, 573–585. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2017.1365164.

Ø  Kluger AN & Nir D, 2009. The feedforward interview. Human Resource Management Review, 20, 235−246

Ø  McAdams DP, 1988. Biography, narrative, and lives: an introduction. J. Pers. 56, 1–18. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1988.tb00460.x

Ø  Miglianico M, Dubreuil P, Miquelon P, Bakker AB and Martin-Krumm, C, 2020. Strength use in the workplace: a literature review. J. Happiness Stud. 21, 737–764. doi: 10.1007/s10902-019-00095-w

Ø  Poole PP, Gioia, DA and Gray B, 1989. Influence modes, schema change, and organizational transformation. J. Appl. Behav. Sci. 25, 271–289. doi: 10.1177/0021886389253004.

Ø  Roberts LM, Dutton JE, Spreitzer GM, Heaphy  ED and Quinn RE, 2005. Composing the reflected best-self portrait: building pathways for becoming extraordinary in work organizations. Acad. Manag. Rev. 30, 712–736. doi: 10.5465/amr.2005.18378874.

Ø  Rozin P and Royzman EB, 2001. Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and contagion. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 5, 296–320. doi: 10.1207/ s15327957pspr0504_2

Ø  Seligman MEP & Csikszentmihalyi M, 2000. Positive psychology: an introduction. Am. Psychol. 55, 5–14. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5

Ø  Van Woerkom, M & De Bruijn, M, 2016. “Why performance appraisal does not lead to performance improvement: excellent performance as a function of uniqueness instead of uniformity”. Ind. Organ. Psychol. 9, 275–281. doi: 10.1017/iop.2016.11.

Ø  Woerkom MA & Kroon B, 2020. The effect of strength based performance appraisal on perceived supervisor support and the motivation to improve performance.

Ø  Woerkom VM & De Bruijn, M, 2016. “Why performance appraisal does not lead to performance improvement: excellent performance as a function of uniqueness instead of uniformity”. Ind. Organ. Psychol. 9, 275–281. doi: 10.1017/iop.2016.11.

 

Ø  Wood AM, Linley PA, Maltby J, Kashdan, TB and Hurling R, 2011. Using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: a longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire. Pers. Individ. Differ. 50, 15–19. doi: 10.1016/ j.paid.2010.08.004.

Yam OB & Kluger N, 2011. Strength based performance appraisal & goal setting, Human resource management review 21. 137-1