Improvements in employee performance management over time: evidence from U.S. federal agencies

This study examines annual changes in U.S. federal employee perceptions of their organization’s performance appraisal process to assess whether improvements in the fairness of the process and the quality of feedback received increase the motivational effects of these employee performance management systems. Analysing ten years of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data, we find that employee perceptions of appraisal fairness and feedback quality increased between 2010 and 2019, as did the strength of the relationship between employee performance management and work effort. The paper concludes with further discussion of some implications of these findings.