Impact and Causes of Rater Severity/Leniency in Appraisals without Postevaluation Communication Between Raters and Ratees

In performance appraisals, some assessors are substantially more lenient than others. Research on this effect in appraisals involving communication and interaction between raters and ratees after the performance evaluation has taken place indicates that it may be at least partly caused by individual differences in assessor personality. However, little is known about the impact or causes of rater severity versus leniency in situations in which there is little or no contact between raters and ratees after the performance evaluation. In S tudy 1 ( N = 174) the strength of the severity–leniency effect in this ‘no‐contact’ context is estimated and found to be similar to that reported for ‘with‐contact’ appraisals. No evidence of an association between assessor personality and assessor severity (vs. leniency) is found in the ‘no‐contact’ context. In S tudy 2 ( N = 54) there is no evidence of an association between the fluid cognitive ability of assessors and the severity of their ratings in a no‐contact context. It is concluded that the severity versus leniency effect probably has a considerable impact on performance ratings in ‘no‐contact’ appraisal settings, but that neither rater personality nor rater cognitive ability appear to play a significant role in this.