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Manuel London (Editor). How People Evaluate Others in Organizations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001, 397 pages, $69.95 cloth, $34.50 softcover.
Reviewed by Stephane Brutus, Department of Management, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
This book is the third by London in the Series in Applied Psychology from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. In the past few years, I have referred to Job Feedback: Giving, Seeking, and Using Feedback for Performance (London, 1997) quite extensively as a reference for my own research, so it was with a fair amount of enthusiasm that I dove into London's most recent work.
This book attempts to integrate social psychology research, mainly that relates to people perception, within the context of organizations. London began his career as a "people perception researcher" as a graduate student, continued in this area at the famous AT&T personnel research laboratory, and maintained his interest in the topic as an academician to finally become one of the most recognized scholars in the field of feedback processes in organizations. A quick glance at the "help" he enlisted as editor shows that he keeps good company: Klimoski, Fiske, Sackett, Barnes-Farrell, Mount, Smither, Avolio, and Salas (among others). Though not very threatening from the 3-point line, this all-star line up would make me quiver as my comprehensive examination committee!
The book is divided into five main sections. The first one, Basic Theory and Research on People Perception, anchors the book by providing a framework that is used (or at least referred to) by most of the other authors. The next sections focus on actual applications of people perceptions in organizations. The second section includes chapters related to selection processes (interviewing, executive selection, and assessment centers); the third one focuses on appraisal (performance appraisal and multisource feedback); and the fourth section pertains to developmental processes (leadership, training, coaching). Finally, the last section of the book discusses the role of people perception in specific interpersonal situations, such as negotiation and virtual teams. As is the tradition, the editor closes the book with a summary chapter. My review of this book will follow its organization: I briefly describe each chapter separately and provide my overall evaluation of the book at the end.