Reducing Organizational Politics in Performance Appraisal: The Role of Coaching Leaders for Age‐Diverse Employees

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21799
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017

Human Resource Management, September–October 2017, Vol. 56, No. 5. Pp. 769–783

© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21799

Correspondence to: Silvia Dello Russo, Assistant Professor, Business Research Unit, ISCTE - Instituto Universitario de

Lisboa, Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal, Ph: +351 217 903 401, silvia.dellorusso@iscte.pt.

REDUCING ORGANIZATIONAL

POLITICS IN PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL: THE ROLE OF

COACHING LEADERS FOR

AGE-DIVERSE EMPLOYEES

SILVIA DELLO RUSSO, MARIELLA MIRAGLIA, AND

LAURA BORGOGNI

We examined whether a supervisor’s coaching leader ship style predicts the per-

ception of organizational politics in performance appraisal (OPPA) reported by

the collaborators. Additionally, we drew on social cognition and motivational

life-span development theories to hypothesize age-related differences in per-

ceived OPPA and its link with the coaching leadership style. Using hierarchical

linear modeling (HLM) on a sample of 576 employees and 112 leaders, we found

that coaching leaders are perceived as less manipulative in their performance

ratings, especially by older employees. This article includes a discussion of the

implications these results have for performance management of an age-diverse

workforce. ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: age, coaching leadership, cross-level, HLM, leadership style,

organizational politics, performance appraisal, performance management

Performance appraisal is among the most

common human resource practices in

organizations. It serves administrative

and developmental functions, and is ulti-

mately aimed at increasing productiv-

ity and effectiveness (Aguinis, 2009).1 Especially

nowadays, with the challenges posed by an

increasingly age-diverse workforce, organizations

need HR practices that enable, motivate, and

develop employees of different age groups (CIDP,

2014; Truxillo, Cadiz, & Rineer, 2014). However,

practitioners have frequently reported their dis-

appointment with the performance appraisal

process, with one fundamental criticism above

all: the reduced impact of performance ratings on

performance improvement (Corporate Leadership

Council, 2012).

One likely explanation is that performance

management (PM) is a complex activity that

goes beyond the rational use of rating tools and

encompasses a wide range of factors that exert

an influence on its success, including political

factors (Ferris, Munyon, Basik, & Buckley, 2008).

Intentional manipulations of the evaluations by

supervisors are not a new phenomenon and are

known in the literature as organizational politics

in performance appraisal (OPPA; Latham & Dello

Russo, 2008; Tziner, Latham, Price, & Haccoun,