The relationship between distal and proximal factors and the use of political considerations in performance appraisal

The present study examined the relationships between several distal and proximal factors, and the extent to which raters invoke political considerations during the performance appraisal of subordinates in an organizational setting. Based on the responses of 248 police officers, it was found that Self-Efficacy as Raters and Continuance Commitment contribute uniquely to explaining the variance in the Use of Political Considerations to distort performance ratings, whereas Perceived Organizational Climate only correlated significantly with the latter variable. Implications of these findings are discussed and a replication with extended clusters of distal and proximal factors is suggested.