What is the central tendency error in employee evaluations?

The central tendency error in employee evaluations refers specifically to the tendency of evaluators to avoid extreme ratings and instead rate everyone around the middle of the scale. This results in an averaging effect, where there is little differentiation between high and low performers. This common issue arises because raters might feel uncomfortable selecting the highest or lowest ratings, leading them to cluster the majority of evaluations toward the middle values.

By employing this method, evaluators fail to accurately reflect the distinctions in performance among employees, ultimately skewing the assessment process. This approach undermines the purpose of performance evaluations, as it does not provide useful feedback for employee development or any accurate measures of performance differentiation. Such errors can impact employee morale and motivation, as the best performers do not receive the recognition they deserve, while underperformers may not receive constructive feedback necessary for improvement.