Which practice involves giving an undeserved high performance rating to an employee?

Which practice involves giving an undeserved high performance rating to an employee?

• A. Leniency
• B. Strictness
• C. Central Tendency
• D. Halo Effect

Answer: (A)

Leniency bias in performance ratings describes the tendency to award higher-than-deserved ratings to employees. This happens when a supervisor avoids giving low marks, perhaps to prevent conflict, protect relationships, or keep the review process simple. As a result, performance might be rated as meeting or exceeding expectations even when it doesn’t, which blurs distinctions among employees and undermines accuracy. The other biases work differently: strictness lowers ratings across the board; central tendency pushes scores toward the middle; the halo effect inflates multiple dimensions based on one favorable trait. But the undeserved high rating described here is best captured by leniency, since it’s about overall rating inflation rather than rating everyone the same or being influenced by a single trait.

Leniency bias in performance ratings describes the tendency to award higher-than-deserved ratings to employees. This happens when a supervisor avoids giving low marks, perhaps to prevent conflict, protect relationships, or keep the review process simple. As a result, performance might be rated as meeting or exceeding expectations even when it doesn’t, which blurs distinctions among employees and undermines accuracy.

The other biases work differently: strictness lowers ratings across the board; central tendency pushes scores toward the middle; the halo effect inflates multiple dimensions based on one favorable trait. But the undeserved high rating described here is best captured by leniency, since it’s about overall rating inflation rather than rating everyone the same or being influenced by a single trait.