Impact of Supervisor's Implicit Person Theory and Commitment of Performance Management Behaviors

Abstract

Performance management is not a new area within IO psychology research, however recently there has been growing interest with how to increase its effectiveness. Scholars are calling for more research to examine the antecedents of actual performance management behaviors that managers enact on a daily basis. The current study addresses this gap by utilizing Implicit Person Theory to understand the effect of supervisor perceptions on their behaviors that contribute towards the goal(s) of performance management. Previous research has suggested that Implicit Person Theory leads to more coaching behaviors, however, has failed to identify an explanatory mechanism. The current study relies on the three-component model of commitment to offer a mediating variable between Implicit Person Theory and differing degrees of performance management behaviors due to its more proximal relationship to the target behaviors compared to the broad antecedent of perception of others. The researchers tested this mediation using survey data from a broad sample of supervisors across the United States. Managers’ Incrementalism was positively and significantly related to discretionary performance management behaviors via affective commitment to performance management, however the relationship between Incrementalism and focal performance management behaviors via continuance commitment was non-significant. This research extends previous performance management research by providing evidence for the influence of key supervisor attitudes and implicit beliefs on varying levels of performance management behaviors. Theoretical contributions, limitations and future research directions are discussed.