How centrality bias in subjective evaluation affects positive and negative employee work behavior: a real-effort task experiment
Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change
ISSN: 1832-5912
Article publication date: 24 January 2022
Issue publication date: 4 October 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the referent cognitions theory (RCT), individuals compare their outcomes to a given reference point. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of centrality bias in subjective performance evaluation on two employees’ work behaviors; willingness to exert work effort and retaliation intention.
Methods
A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject real-effort task experiment was conducted on 162 Accounting and Management students. Centrality bias and level of task difficulty were each manipulated into two groups. Meanwhile, the level of performance was divided based on the average score of the real-effort task.
Findings
The experimental data were examined using MANOVA and PROCESS macro regression. It reveals that centrality bias negatively affects willingness to exert work effort through perceived procedural fairness and positively affects retaliation intention. These findings align with the RCT in explaining the perceived procedural fairness psychological mechanism and the work behavior resulting from an unfair evaluation procedure.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind to investigate the effect of centrality bias in subjective performance evaluation on positive and negative employee behaviors concurrently, which refers to the real-effort experimental task. The study demonstrates the significant impact of centrality bias on unwillingness to exert effort and adverse behavior.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Zahirul Hoque (editor) and anonymous reviewers for their insightful and valuable suggestions on improving the earlier versions of this paper.
Funding: This research was funded by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan – LPDP RI) in the scheme of thesis funding.
Citation
Mursita, L.Y. and Nahartyo, E. (2022), "How centrality bias in subjective evaluation affects positive and negative employee work behavior: a real-effort task experiment", Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 789-810. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAOC-01-2020-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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