Individual performance appraisal and appraisee reactions to workgroups : The mediating role of goal interdependence and the moderating role of procedural justice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships of individual performance appraisal with appraisees' reactions towards their workgroups and the mechanisms underlying these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted involving 185 full‐time employees in China. Regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results showed that developmental and evaluative performance appraisals were related to appraisee reactions to the workgroup, both positive and negatives, respectively. As expected, these two relationships were mediated by perceived cooperative goals and competitive goals, respectively. Furthermore, procedural justice moderated the positive relationship between evaluative performance appraisal and perceived competitive goals in such a way that the relationship was stronger when perceived procedural justice of the performance appraisal was high. Originality/value – This is the first paper that links individual performance appraisal to group‐oriented appraisee reactions. The mediating effects of goal interdependence can shed light on the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In addition, the paper extends the current literature on the interaction of outcome favorability with procedural justice by considering the role of procedural justice in accentuating the effect of evaluative performance appraisal on competitive goals within a group.