Performance: Differences in measuring performance

An important issue in human resources is the procedure of the employees’ performance evaluation. The appraisal is essential in the sense of employee appreciation and motivation. Most employers use a subjective performance evaluation of a single superior or a group of persons involved in the employee’s working processes. The subjective evaluation of a group or one person is often questioned about being appropriate. An often-named solution for a more objective criteria could be data driven performance measures. Professional sport provides a unique opportunity to compare objective and subjective performance evaluation measures. A data set of the German Bundesliga was used to test if the two different performance measure come to equal results. It is shown that differences in means exist but equivalence tests support the hypothesis that both measures could be treated as equal. In toto, it seems that in an environment where performance is relatively good to measure objective and subjective performance evaluations lead to equivalent results.