Bias in Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales: Global or Scale-Specific?

Murphy and Constans (1987) showed that behavioral anchors can be a source of bias in ratings but did not determine whether bias in ratings of one dimension would spread to rating of other performance dimensions. In two separate studies, we manipulated behavioral anchors on one of the scales developed by Murphy and Constans (1987) and examined the effect of bias in these scales on ratings of dimensions that varied in their conceptual and evaluative similarity to the dimension that was manipulated. Neither study showed evidence that bias in ratings of one dimension spreads to ratings of other performance dimensions. These results suggest that rating bias of the sort reported by Murphy and Constans will not have a substantial effect on performance ratings in organizations.