Business research paradigm

“The concept of 360 degree feedback makes a lot of sense and, if used

well, should have a great deal to offer.  It seems to suit the move

towards the less hierarchical, more flexibly-structured and knowledgebased organisations of the future”

Professor Clive Fletcher

Goldsmiths College, University of London

People differ in their abilities and their aptitudes. There is always some difference between the quality and quantity of the same work on the same job being done by two different people. Performance appraisals of Employees are necessary to understand each employee’s abilities, competencies and relative merit and worth for the organization. All staff, managers, workers need performance feedback in order to learn and grow.

Most performance management systems are connected to annual or project-specific outcomes such as revenues, budget controls, gross margins, and so on. These measurable outcomes represent the “what”  of performance appraisals and are generally either meet or exceed the measured outcomes.  So why then do so many organizations fail to provide regular performance feedback? And I think that meaningful feedback often does not occur because, in most cases of poor performance, the root cause is not what employees did or didn’t achieve, but rather it’s the how they did or didn’t do their job. The how or the behavioral causes are extremely difficult to identify and even more difficult and uncomfortable for supervisors to articulate and communicate.  And the question which comes to my mind is how 360° feedback can be enormously useful and effective to organizations.

What is 360°feedback?

360 degree feedback is a process whereby an individual is rated on their performance by people who know something about their work. This can include direct reports, peers and managers and in some cases customers or clients, in fact anybody who is credible to the individual and is familiar with their work can be included in the feedback process.  This is usually in addition to completing a self-assessment on performance. The resulting information is presented to the individual with the aim of helping them to gain a better understanding of their skills and development areas.

 Source:  Evaluation of 360 Degree Feedback Ratings: Relationships with Each Other and with Performance and Selection Predictors Terry A. Beehr, Lana Ivanitskaya, Curtiss P. Hansen, Dmitry Erofeev and David M. Gudanowski . Journal of Organizational Behavior

Vol. 22, No. 7 (Nov., 2001) (pp. 775-788)

            This article defined the concept of this teechnique. It became known that  Feedback from 360 degree ratings based on competency principles and used for developmental purposes was investigated for interrelationships among the ratings and for its relationships with performance and selection data.

Source: John Steffensen and Jaime Steffensen, Western Management Consultants. The role of 360° Feedback in Manager Performance Appraisals - Process and Implementation Keys. <http://www.wmc.ca/pdfs/articles/360Feedback.pdf>.

This article helped me to define what pros and cons do the 360 feedback have to the organizations? It also disscusses that people need feedback, and multi-source feedback is the most effective method available for giving people information about aspects of their competence that are otherwise hard to measure. 

Pros:

It enables a systematic evaluation of performance.  Day-to-day, person-to-person feedback is exceedingly valuable.  But feedback based on one person's observations is unpredictable, and it is usually focused on only one area of performance.  360 lets you ask for and get feedback from many sources about a comprehensive set of closely related behaviors that are important to workplace performance. 

It provides a way for coworkers to express feedback.  It isn't easy to give feedback.  Giving effective feedback requires a certain amount of interpersonal skill. Most people are uncomfortable in the feedback role – whether giving positive or constructive feedback – and they are happy to leave this task to managers.  The structured mechanism of the 360 process gives people a safe vehicle for communicating their opinions about another person's work patterns. 

It provides feedback from many sources.  Feedback from one source is better than no feedback at all.  But even when it is from the boss, it is still one person's opinion.  When onsistent feedback comes from many sources, it is convincing.  People considering the hard work of changing behavior want feedback to be thorough and credible. 

Cons:

· Confidentiality & Trust Concerns:  Most people want to give fair and honest feedback, but they don’t want to risk being punished for doing so.  If they suspect that the process may reveal their feedback, especially to their superiors, they are less likely to participate in an open and honest fashion. 

· Impact on Compensation:  360° feedback isn’t a resolution to performance issues, nor should it be a pure compensation tool.  The most appropriate use for 360° feedback is performance enhancement – tying performance rewards like compensation to the tool may skew or bias results in a manner that is undesirable