When Performance Appraisals Fail: Emotion Regulation and the Direction of Organizational Routines

Melhem, Muntaser J, Darwish, Tamer K ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1815-9338, Wood, Geoffrey and Seitanidi, M. May (2025) When Performance Appraisals Fail: Emotion Regulation and the Direction of Organizational Routines. Journal of Management Studies. doi:10.1111/joms.13238 (In Press)

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Abstract

Despite their ubiquity, there is much uncertainty as to whether performance appraisals work, and considerable evidence as to their shortfalls. Drawing on the sociological literature on routine dynamics, we examine the embeddedness of the performance appraisal, the role of emotions, exploring what goes on during the process, and how as a routine, appraisals may be diverted onto a trajectory increasingly incompatible with organizational goals. Previous studies have explored how managers may successfully intervene when routines become dysfunctional; we explore when and how this becomes difficult or impossible. We assess how negative emotions, introduces a layer of backstage complexity to the appraisal routine. It is based on professional service firms’ subsidiaries in a Middle Eastern context, where informal rules and network ties may subvert formal organizational ones. The study identifies distancing, working around, and buffering, as key responses to current and anticipated future negative affective events. It highlights how emotions are not simply antecedents or consequences in the appraisal process; they are experienced throughout the process, accompanying each action, interaction, and event. This study extends routine dynamics and performance appraisal literature by highlighting the emotional dimension’s intervening role and examining actors' contending subjectivities. We emphasize how actors shape appraisal routines in diverse and individualistic ways at the micro-level.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Melhem, M.J., Darwish, T.K., Wood, G. and Seitanidi, M.M. (2025), When Performance Appraisals Fail: Emotion Regulation and the Direction of Organizational Routines. J. Manage. Stud.. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13238, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13238. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Routine dynamics; Performance appraisal; Emotions; Negative emotions; Emotion regulation; Deception
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business > HF5549 Personnel management. Employment management H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Tamer Darwish
Date Deposited:	29 Apr 2025 09:56
Last Modified:	01 Jun 2025 09:16
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15007

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