WELCOME TO THE EMPLOYEE REACTIONS LAB
Performance Management, Organizational Justice, and Employee Reactions to AI in HR Practices
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT/APPRAISAL, ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE, AND EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO AI IN HR PRACTICES
My research program focuses mainly on three research areas, two of which I have spent many years studying and a new one. Early in my career, I also focused on team processes but now I mostly investigate teams in either performance appraisal or organizational justice contexts. Recently, one of my interests related to performance appraisal has led me to also focus on employee reactions to the use of AI in human resources practices. Below I describe my interests in more depth:
Performance Appraisal/Management
Most of my current projects relate to the debate whether to eliminate performance ratings in organizations. For the past several years, academics and practitioners have been debating whether organizations should abolish performance ratings – a debate driven not by academics but by the many organizations that have eliminated performance ratings. I have shown that most people prefer receiving performance ratings than not receive them and that narrative performance reviews (a possible replacement for performance ratings) can contain language biased by gender stereotypes, exacerbating the glass ceiling issue for women.
In addition to investigating how employees react to organizations potentially eliminating performance ratings, I have also been investigating employee reactions to calibration meetings, widely used in organizations. Instead of supervisors deciding employee performance ratings, in many organizations performance ratings are decided in a meeting in which the supervisor discusses subordinate performance with relevant others.
Lastly, I also have a long standing interest regarding how to improve justice perceptions of performance management practices. A senior graduate student and I recently wrote a chapter about how organizations can increase employee justice perceptions of performance ratings.
Organizational Justice
In addition to exploring organizational justice perceptions of performance management practices, I also have more theoretical research interests involving organizational justice. Several researchers have criticized the use of Social Exchange Theory as a blanket explanation for why employees reciprocate just treatment and support from organizations and their representatives (supervisors) with attitudes and behaviors benefiting the organization. My lab is currently investigating Social Exchange Theory by focusing specifically on employee felt obligation to reciprocate justice treatment by supervisors and the organizations with behaviors benefiting the organization. We are in the final phases of a meta-analysis investigating employee felt obligation, its antecedents, and its consequences.
Employee Reactions to AI in HR Practices
AI is fundamentally changing how organizations select employees and perhaps will also change how employee performance ratings are determined. In response to the explosion of the use of AI in employee selection, I have started a new line of research investigating reactions to AI-based evaluations of applicant performance on selection exercises. I received a grant from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology in 2024 to investigate whether applicants view AI generated ratings in an assessment center as less fair than ratings assigned by human beings, and whether any perceived fairness differences have implications for how well applicants perform on assessment center exercises. With the help of my graduate students, this project is now complete, and we will publish the results shortly.
*** In case you are wondering, the picture at the top is AI generated. I asked AI to draw a picture of employees reacting to the use of AI in hiring and performance appraisal practices.
SOME RECENT ARTICLES AND PRESENTATIONS
Published Articles and Book Chapters since 2020
* indicates student author
Roch, S. G. & Woehr, D. J. (forthcoming). Overview and Evaluation of Supervisory Performance Ratings. In N. Schmitt and A. M. Ryan (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Assessment and Selection, 2nd edition. London: Oxford University Press.
Roch, S. G., & Sim*, W. Y. (forthcoming). Justice Perceptions in Performance Management. In D. Schleicher and H. Baumann (Eds.). Performance Management (SIOP Organizational Frontiers Series). Oxford University Press.
Roch, S. G., & Devon*, K. (2025). Why participant perceptions of assessment center exercises matter: Justice, motivation, self‐efficacy, and performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 33(1), e70002. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.70002
Roch, S. G. (2024). Perceptions of assessment center exercises: Between exercises differences and interventions. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 17(2), 220–232. doi:10.1017/iop.2024.4
Roch, S. G., Zhuang*, W., Park*, J., Jin*, F., & Brooks*, R. R. (2024). Do just trainer behaviors matter? An investigation of felt obligation, affect, and endorsement of the just world hypothesis. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 23(2), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000334
Rubin, E., Roch, C. H. & Roch, S. G. (2023). Grading teacher performance appraisal systems: Understanding the implications of student test scores and performance information use. Public Performance and Management Review, 46(2), 257-285
Roch, S. G., Zhuang, W., Hunt, S. T., & Bidwell, L. (2022). Employee groups and performance trends over time: Exploring the value of performance ratings for identifying high performers and other employee groups. Psychology of Leaders and Leadership, 25(2), 65–89. https://doi.org/10.1037/mgr0000125 (May)
Dalal, D. K., Randall, J.G., Cheung, H.K., Gorman, B. C., Roch, S.G., & Williams, K. J. (2022). Is there bias in alternatives to standardized tests? An investigation into letters of recommendation, International Journal of Testing, 22 (1), 21-42, DOI:10.1080/15305058.2021.2019751
Ciancetta*, L., & Roch, S. G. (2021). The role of gender in performance feedback: Uncovering new areas of the backlash effect. Human Resource Management, 60(4), 641-657. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22059
Roch, S. G., & Braddock*, K. L. (2020). Do employees prefer to receive ratings? The role of justice perceptions and justice-related factors. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 19(3), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000243
Conference Presentations since 2020
Roch, S. G. (2025). Assessment center participant perceptions of artificial intelligence exercise ratings: A justice perspective. In Best of SIOP Ignite Session. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Denver, CO, United States.
Roch, S. G., Sim, W. Y., Hicks, J., Byrne, N., Risavi, J, & Schmid, B. (2025, April). Swift trust and trustworthiness: Ethnic diversity in temporary teams [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Denver, CO, United States.
Roch, S. G., & Sim, W. Y. (2025, April). Rater calibration meetings: The employee perspective [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Denver, CO, United States.
Zelin, A. I. (Co-Chair), Gorman, C. A. (Co-Chair), Lam, A., Macoukji, F., Meriac, J. P., Roch, S., & Thompson, D. J. (2025). Bridge over troubled (talent) waters: Academics and practitioners unite in solutions [Alternative Session]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, Denver, CO, United States.