Alvin,a sales representative for a company making industrial solvents,lost a major customer last month.Until then,Alvin's year has been about average in the dollar amount of sales.Early in the year,Alvin brought in two new customers of about the size of the customer he lost last month.Alvin's supervisor gives Alvin an unsatisfactory rating in his annual performance appraisal.It is likely that Alvin's supervisor has committed the ____ error.
A) contrast
B) strictness
C) recency
D) primacy

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The recency error refers to the tendency to give more weight to recent events when evaluating performance, rather than considering the employee's performance over the entire year. In this case, Alvin's supervisor may have given him an unsatisfactory rating because of the recent loss of the major customer, even though Alvin had brought in two new customers earlier in the year of similar size. The contrast error would involve comparing Alvin's performance to that of another employee, the strictness error would involve consistently rating employees lower than deserved, and the primacy error would involve giving more weight to initial impressions or events rather than looking at the employee's overall performance.

Alvin,a Sales Representative for a Company Making Industrial Solvents,lost a Major