Supervisors' Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity Differential Relations With Performance Ratings of Subordinates and the Moderating Effect of Screening Ability

Survey data obtained from two independent samples of supervisors (Ns = 68 and 109) supported the prediction that supervisors' experience of role conflict would correlate positively with their reported tendency to deliberately inflate subordinates' performance ratings. Contrary to expectation, in neither sample did supervisors' screening ability emerge as a moderator of the relation between role conflict and rating inflation. In a third independent sample of supervisors (N = 25), in which rating inflation was operationalized on the basis of actual performance ratings of subordinates, strong support was obtained for both the predicted positive association between role conflict and rating inflation as well as the predicted moderating effect of screening ability on this relation. By contrast, the authors did not anticipate that supervisors' experience of role ambiguity would be directly associated with, or interact with screening ability to predict, rating inflation. The data from all three samples were, in general, in line with these expectations.