A performance improvement plan is meant to help someone improve. Most recipients experience it as a formal warning that the end is near. The psychology on both sides, and how to be honest about it.
Hr · Topic
HR Psychology — Page 2
The psychology behind HR decisions: how hiring, pay raises, promotions, feedback, discipline and exits are experienced by the people involved, and what the research says managers should do.
- 36 guides
- 6 subtopics
- Updated Nov 11, 2026
All guides · page 2
Difficult Conversations at Work: The Psychology of Threat and Defensiveness
A difficult conversation is difficult because it threatens status, security and identity on both sides. Understanding that is the first step to having one that works.
Organizational Justice: Why Fair Process Matters More Than the Outcome
Decades of research show that employees judge decisions by how they were made and communicated as much as by what was decided. A practical guide to organisational justice.
Workplace Discipline Psychology: Why Punishment Rarely Changes Behaviour
Warnings and sanctions are meant to correct behaviour. Behavioural research shows they mostly teach people to avoid being caught. A guide to discipline that changes conduct.
Self-Assessment Psychology: Overconfidence, Impostor Feelings and Self-Ratings
Self-ratings agree only modestly with managers’ ratings, and the gaps are systematic. What research shows about overconfidence, impostor feelings and self-assessments in reviews.
Psychological Safety at Work: What It Is and What It Is Not
Psychological safety is often mistaken for comfort or niceness. It is the shared belief that you can raise a problem, ask a question or admit a mistake without being punished for it.
Forced Ranking Psychology: What Stack Ranking Does to a Team
Ranking employees against each other on a fixed curve changes how they behave toward one another. The evidence on stack ranking and the alternatives that keep standards high.
Performance Review Bias: What a Rating Really Measures
A performance rating tells you a great deal about the manager who gave it. Research on rater bias, the patterns to look for and how to make reviews more accurate.
Feedback Psychology: Why a Third of Feedback Makes Performance Worse
Feedback is assumed to help. The largest review of the evidence found it often does the opposite. Here is what separates feedback that improves performance from feedback that damages it.
Internal Promotion vs External Hire: The Psychology on Both Sides
Organisations routinely pay outsiders more for the same job while underrating the people they already have. What the research says, and how to choose well.
Promotion Bias: Potential, Proximity and Who Gets Seen
Promotion decisions rest on judgments about potential and on who decision-makers happen to see. Both are biased in ways the research has measured. Here is how to correct for them.
From Peer to Boss: The Identity Shift of First-Time Managers
New managers do not struggle because they lack techniques. They struggle because the job requires them to become someone different. A guide to the psychology of the first year.