THE IMPACT OF TRAINING ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF OBJECTIVE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND PERCEPTION OF CLIMATE IN THREE PUBLIC AGENCIES

The recent enactment of public personnel laws concerning performance appraisal in the Federal government and the District of Columbia forces a major change in the performance management practices of public agencies. Agencies are required to change from the use of highly subjective to highly objective methods in appraising employee performance. A basic assumption in the new laws is that a change in rules and regulations covering performance appraisal systems will produce a change in managerial behavior. This assumption is untested. This dissertation examines the relative effectiveness of a policy directive or a training model to bring about change in performance appraisal methods in the context of organizational climate. An experimental group of managers and supervisors participated in a 3-day technical and communication skill training session. A control group did not participate in training, but was given a policy directive instructing them to develop objective performance standards. It was theorized that supervisors who set hard goals after training would have a more positive impact on their subordinates' perception of climate than those supervisors who were simply told to do their best after training. It was further hypothesized that both groups would be more effective in changing their approach to appraisal than the control groups. This study demonstrates that under certain restrictive conditions; namely, participation in cognitive and behavioral skill training with specific goals set for on-the-job behavior, transfer of learning to the worksite will occur, thus producing compliance with the law. Statistical test and analysis of response on climate and appraisal questionnaires found support for the hypothesis that training with subsequent hard goals may produce more changes in appraisal methods than easy goals or no goals.