When and where to give feedback? An empirical analysis of peer reviews in the workplace

Abstract

Today's companies are interested in when and where employees work to become more efficient. In addition, there are various debates on whether the change in the work style represented by flextime and working from home is successful. However, little has been studied about how these changes in work patterns affect peer performance evaluation. In this study, I examine the effect of time and place on the peer feedback score. First, reviewers tend to evaluate more negatively if they leave peer evaluations late from the start of work. Second, reviewers gave more negative feedback at home than at the office. The interesting part is that evaluators with long experience or belonging to the developer occupation do not make negative evaluations even in the above two situations. These findings directly contribute to companies designing and implementing performance management systems. In addition, there is an academic contribution in that a new type of rater error may occur depending on the changing working style.