The effect of subordinates' gender on the difference between self-ratings, and superiors' ratings, of subordinates' performance in hotels

An appropriate means of subordinate managers' performance evaluation in an organisation is crucial for identifying their strength and weaknesses for maintaining job commitment, and improving performance on on-going basis [Church, A., 1995. First-rate multirater feedback. Training and Development 49, 42-43; Church, A., Bracken, D., 1997. Advancing the state of the art of 360-degree feedback. Group and Organisation Management 22, 149-161; Atwater, L., Yammarino, F., 1997. Self-other rating agreement: a review and model. Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management. 15, 121-174]. The debate, on whether there is difference between subordinates' self-ratings of their performance, and superiors' ratings of it is better, continues. This is because the extant literature is inconclusive. This study contributes towards resolution of the debate at least for the hotel industry in Australia. The study examined (a) if there is a difference between the superiors' ratings, and subordinates' self-ratings, of subordinates' performance, and (b) if subordinates' gender would explain the difference (if any) found under (a) in the hotel industry. In total, a usable response of 66 general managers (the superiors) and 66 rooms and 66 food and beverage managers (the subordinates) from 66 hotels and resorts were received. The results of the study revealed significant differences between (i) the general managers' (GMs') ratings of their department managers' (DMs') performance and (ii) the DMs' self-ratings of their performance. Most interestingly, the results revealed that the DMs' (subordinates') gender explains the difference between (i) and (ii) above, therefore makes a contribution in resolving the debate within the hotel industry. Crown Copyright (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.