IREM Certified Property Manager (CPM) Practice Test 2026 - Free CPM Practice Questions and Study Guide

The scenario described illustrates the liking bias error, which occurs when a manager allows their personal feelings towards an employee—such as friendship—to influence their assessment of that employee's performance. In this case, the manager prioritizes their emotional connection over objective evaluation criteria, leading to a rating that does not reflect the employee's actual job performance.

Liking bias can result in inflated ratings for employees who are well-liked or friendly with the manager, while potentially disadvantaging those who may not have a personal relationship with the manager, regardless of their performance. This type of bias can undermine the accuracy and fairness of performance evaluations and can affect morale and productivity within a team or organization.

The other types of rating errors do not pertain to personal relationships in the same way, thus making them distinct from liking bias. For instance, severity bias refers to a tendency to rate all employees too harshly regardless of their actual performance, while central tendency bias involves avoiding extreme ratings altogether by clustering ratings around a midpoint. Recency error focuses on giving undue weight to the most recent performance rather than considering the entire evaluation period. Each conveys a different aspect of bias in performance ratings that is not influenced by personal affinity as liking bias is.