A Socioanalytic Perspective on Job Performance

Abstract

This article presents a perspective on the relation between personality, job performance, and performance appraisal. The article is largely descriptive and discursive, but the key assumptions are primarily data-based. We begin by defining personality in terms of motivation, identity, and reputation-as opposed to traits. We then describe the role of social skills in allowing people successfully to pursue their major occupational goals. Finally, we suggest that performance appraisals reflect supervisors' judgments of rewardingness-the degree to which an incumbent meets or fulfills his or her boss's expectations regarding his or her performance-and these expectations may not necessarily concern the degree to which important organizational goals are met.