Job performance expectations and perceptions of retail employees: Cognitive dissonances between self-reports and supervisor-ratings

Abstract

Primary data was obtained from six retail outlets of a large global retailer to determine the self-reported job performance expectations (E) and perceptions (P) of 292 employees and the perceptions of 106 supervisors about their subordinates’ actual job achievements. Unlike past studies, the focus of this study was on internal rather than the ubiquitous external customers’ views on the performance quality and productivity of retail employees. The survey revealed that employees’ performance expectations were much higher than their self-reported and the supervisors’ perceptions of employees’ performance. Although there were marginal differences in the mean scores between employees’ and supervisors’ perceptions, the average differences between the retail employees’ expectations and their self-reported perceptions (Ee – Pe values), as well as between their expectations and the supervisors’ perceptions (Ee – Ps values) of employees’ performance were between 0.82 and 1.57. Using Anderson’s (1973) expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) this article analyses and discusses the cognitive dissonance between two performance evaluators