Traits Evaluation (attribute)

A manager is judged in terms of personal characteristics e.g. co-cooperativeness, loyal, independent, dependable, consistent etc.
It is carried out in a planned manner and the individual is judged on work related qualities, e.g. knowledge of the job, ability to follow procedures, ability to plan and co-ordinate, ability to handle emergencies.
This evaluation gives the assessment at alternative ratings, e.g. very good, good, fair, poor, very poor etc.
It also gives an opportunity for informal evaluation as the reviewer can ask many open ended questions.

Advantages

•        it is very simple, easy to complete the form
•        can be used for different levels of management.

It has many limitations:

•    It is subjective—one human being assessing another.
•    The rating cannot be uniform—each evaluation will have its own rating due to differences in their understanding.
•    It is not free of bias, the one being rated can bias the process depending on the power relation between him and the superior.
•    It is not comprehensive—it is difficult to capture a person’s total performance at one particular point in time—other factors will affect the process.
•    Possession of a certain attribute e.g. initiative may not actually relate to performance.
•    Halo-effect—a rater who feels a manager has one good attribute e.g. intelligence may rate him high on all other attributes, and if the rater believes the manager lacks a good attribute, e.g. judgement he will probably rate the person low on all other attributes.