360-degree feedback (also known as multi-rater feedback, multi-source feedback, or multi-source assessment) is a process through which feedback from an employee's colleagues and associates is gathered, in addition to a self-evaluation by the employee.
360-degree feedback can include input from external sources who interact with the employee (such as customers and suppliers), subordinates, peers, and supervisors. It differs from traditional performance appraisal, which typically uses downward feedback delivered by supervisors employees, and upward feedback delivered to managers by subordinates.
Organizations most commonly use 360-degree feedback for developmental purposes. Nonetheless, organizations are increasingly using 360-degree feedback in performance evaluations and administrative decisions, such as in payroll and promotion. When 360-degree feedback is used for performance evaluation purposes, it is sometimes called a 360-degree review. The use of 360-degree feedback in evaluation is controversial, due to concerns about the subjectivity and fairness of feedback providers.
The origins of 360-degree feedback date back to around 1930, with the German Reichswehr, when the military psychologist Johann Baptist Rieffert developed a selection methodology for officer candidates. One of the earliest recorded uses of surveys to gather information about employees occurred in the 1950s at the Esso Research and Engineering Company. [1] From there, the idea of 360-degree feedback gained momentum.
Online evaluation tools led to increased popularity of multi-rater feedback assessments, due to the ease of use compared to physical pen-and-paper tools. [2] The outsourcing of human resources functions has also created a market for 360-degree feedback products from consultants. [3] Today, studies suggest that over one-third of U.S. companies use some type of multi-source feedback, [4] including 90% of all Fortune 500 firms. [5] In recent years, multi-source feedback has become a best practice in human resources due to online tools such as multiple language options, comparative reporting, and aggregate reporting. [6]
Certain guidelines emphasise establishing trust between raters and ratees to improve rater accountability and feedback accuracy. [7] At the same time, anonymous participation has also been found to result in more accurate feedback, in which case confidentiality among human resources staff and managers should be preserved. [7] The standardisation and optimisation of rating scales and data collection also affects assessment accuracy, including such factors like the time of day. [7] [8] [9]
Using 360-degree feedback tools for appraisal purposes has been criticised over concerns of performance criteria validity, ability of peers to give accurate feedback, and manipulation of these systems by feedback providers. [10] [11] [12] Employee manipulation of feedback ratings has been reported in some companies who have utilized 360-degree feedback for performance evaluation, including GE, [13] IBM, [14] and Amazon. [15]
The amount and level of training in 360-degree feedback for both the rater and ratee can affect the level of accuracy of the feedback. If no guidance is given, individual bias may affect the rater's ratings and the ratee's interpretation of the feedback. [8] However, even with training measures in place, unconscious bias may still occur due to factors such as the cultural influences or relationship quality between the rater and ratee. [9] Additionally, if there are potential consequences from rater feedback, rater motivation may shift from providing accurate feedback to providing feedback based on self-motivated reasons such as promoting or harming a particular individual. [8] [16]
Some members of the U.S. military have criticized its use of 360-degree feedback programs in employment decisions because of problems with validity and reliability. [17] Other branches of the U.S. government have questioned 360-degree feedback reviews as well. [18] Still, these organizations continue to use and develop their assessments in developmental processes. [19]
A study on the patterns of rater accuracy shows that the length of time that a rater has known the individual being evaluated generally correlates with positive review favorability and lower accuracy of a 360-degree review, apart from raters who have known the individual for less than a year. [20]
It has been suggested that multi-rater assessments often generate conflicting opinions and that there may be no way to determine whose feedback is accurate. [21] Studies have also indicated that self-ratings are generally significantly higher than the ratings given from others. [22]
Several studies indicate that the use of 360-degree feedback helps to improve employee performance because it helps the evaluated see different perspectives of their performance. [23]
In a 5-year study, no improvement in overall rater scores was found from the 1st year to the 2nd, but scores rose with each passing year from 2nd to 4th. [24] A 1996 study found that performance increased between the 1st and 2nd administrations, and sustained this improvement 2 years later. [25] Additional studies show that 360-degree feedback may be predictive of future performance. [26]
Some authors maintain, however, that there are too many confounding variables related to 360-degree evaluations to reliably generalize their effectiveness, [27] arguing that process features are likely to have major effects on creating behavior change. [28] A 1998 study has found that the category of rater affects the reliability of feedback, with direct reports generally the least reliable. [29]
Multiple pieces of research have demonstrated that the scale of responses can have a major effect on the results, and that some response scales are better than others. [30] The evaluated individual following up with raters to discuss their results, which cannot be done when feedback is anonymous, often has a profound impact on results. [31] Other potentially powerful factors affecting behavior change include how raters are selected, manager approval, instrument quality, rater training and orientation, participant training, supervisor training, coaching, integration with HR systems, and accountability. [32]
One group of studies proposed four paradoxes that explain why 360-degree evaluations do not elicit accurate data:
Additional studies found no correlation between an employee's multi-rater assessment scores and performance appraisal scores provided by supervisors. [34] They advise that although multi-rater feedback can be effectively used for appraisal, care needs to be taken in its implementation or results will be compromised. [35] This research suggests that 360-degree feedback and performance appraisals get at different outcome, leading some executives to argue that traditional performance appraisals and 360-degree feedback should be used in evaluating overall performance. [36]
Industrial and organizational psychology "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effectiveness, health, and well-being of both individuals and organizations." It is an applied discipline within psychology and is an international profession. I-O psychology is also known as occupational psychology in the United Kingdom, organisational psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and work and organizational (WO) psychology throughout Europe and Brazil. Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology is the broader, more global term for the science and profession.
A performance appraisal, also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation, (career) development discussion, or employee appraisal, sometimes shortened to "PA", is a periodic and systematic process whereby the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. This is done after employees are trained about work and settle into their jobs. Performance appraisals are a part of career development and consist of regular reviews of employee performance within organizations.
Business performance management (BPM) is a management approach which encompasses a set of processes and analytical tools to ensure that an organization's activities and output are aligned with its goals. BPM is associated with business process management, a larger framework managing organizational processes.
Staffing is the process of finding the right worker with appropriate qualifications or experience and recruiting them to fill a job position or role. Through this process, organizations acquire, deploy, and retain a workforce of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organization's effectiveness. In management, staffing is an operation of recruiting the employees by evaluating their skills and knowledge before offering them specific job roles accordingly.
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the effective and efficient management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives. Human resource management is primarily concerned with the management of people within organizations, focusing on policies and systems. HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee-benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and reward management, such as managing pay and employee benefits systems. HR also concerns itself with organizational change and industrial relations, or the balancing of organizational practices with requirements arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.
A job interview is an interview consisting of a conversation between a job applicant and a representative of an employer which is conducted to assess whether the applicant should be hired. Interviews are one of the most common methods of employee selection. Interviews vary in the extent to which the questions are structured, from an unstructured and informal conversation to a structured interview in which an applicant is asked a predetermined list of questions in a specified order; structured interviews are usually more accurate predictors of which applicants will make suitable employees, according to research studies.
The Hong Kong Civil Service is managed by 13 policy bureaux in the Government Secretariat, and 67 departments and agencies, mostly staffed by civil servants. The Secretary for the Civil Service (SCS) is one of the Principal Officials appointed under the Accountability System and a Member of the Executive Council. He heads the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) of the Government Secretariat and is responsible to the Chief Executive (CE) for civil service policies as well as the overall management and development of the civil service. His primary role is to ensure that the civil service serves the best interests of the community and delivers various services in a trustworthy, efficient and cost effective manner. The CSB assumes overall policy responsibility for the management of the civil service, including such matters as appointment, pay and conditions of service, staff management, manpower planning, training, and discipline.
Competence is the set of demonstrable characteristics and skills that enable and improve the efficiency or performance of a job. Competency is a series of knowledge, abilities, skills, experiences and behaviors, which leads to effective performance in an individual's activities. Competency is measurable and can be developed through training.
Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) are scales used to rate performance. BARS are normally presented vertically with scale points ranging from five to nine. It is an appraisal method that aims to combine the benefits of narratives, critical incidents, and quantified ratings by anchoring a quantified scale with specific narrative examples of good, moderate, and poor performance.
Greenberg (1987) introduced the concept of organizational justice with regard to how an employee judges the behavior of the organization and the employee's resulting attitude and behaviour. For example, if a firm makes redundant half of the workers, an employee may feel a sense of injustice with a resulting change in attitude and a drop in productivity.
Clark L. Wilson was an American industrial psychologist who introduced the concept of 360 feedback surveys for management training and development applications. From 1970-1973 he developed his first 360-degree feedback survey, the "Survey of Management Practices". It was based on a learning sequence he called the Task-Cycle-Theory. Today, 360 feedback surveys of many types are standard tools for management training and development worldwide.
Organizational behavior management (OBM) is a subdiscipline of applied behavior analysis (ABA), which is the application of behavior analytic principles and contingency management techniques to change behavior in organizational settings. Through these principles and assessment of behavior, OBM seeks to analyze and employ antecedent, influencing actions of an individual before the action occurs, and consequence, what happens as a result of someone's actions, interventions which influence behaviors linked to the mission and key objectives of the organization and its workers. Such interventions have proven effective through research in improving common organizational areas including employee productivity, delivery of feedback, safety, and overall morale of said organization.
A health risk assessment is a questionnaire about a person's medical history, demographic characteristics and lifestyle. It is one of the most widely used screening tools in the field of health promotion and is often the first step in multi-component health promotion programs.
Training and development involves improving the effectiveness of organizations and the individuals and teams within them. Training may be viewed as being related to immediate changes in effectiveness via organized instruction, while development is related to the progress of longer-term organizational and employee goals. While training and development technically have differing definitions, the terms are often used interchangeably. Training and development have historically been topics within adult education and applied psychology, but have within the last two decades become closely associated with human resources management, talent management, human resources development, instructional design, human factors, and knowledge management.
Job performance assesses whether a person performs a job well. Job performance, studied academically as part of industrial and organizational psychology, also forms a part of human resources management. Performance is an important criterion for organizational outcomes and success. John P. Campbell describes job performance as an individual-level variable, or something a single person does. This differentiates it from more encompassing constructs such as organizational performance or national performance, which are higher-level variables.
Personnel psychology is a subfield of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. Personnel psychology is the area of I-O psychology that primarily deals with the recruitment, selection and evaluation of personnel, and with other job aspects such as morale, job satisfaction, and relationships between managers and workers in the workplace. It is the field of study that concentrates on the selection and evaluation of employees; this area of psychology deals with job analysis and defines and measures job performance, performance appraisal, employment testing, employment interviews, personnel selection and employee training, and human factors and ergonomics.
Performance rating is the step in the work measurement in which the analyst observes the worker's performance and records a value representing that performance relative to the analyst's concept of standard performance.
Work motivation is a person's internal disposition toward work. To further this, an incentive is the anticipated reward or aversive event available in the environment. While motivation can often be used as a tool to help predict behavior, it varies greatly among individuals and must often be combined with ability and environmental factors to actually influence behavior and performance. Results from a 2012 study, which examined age-related differences in work motivation, suggest a "shift in people's motives" rather than a general decline in motivation with age. That is, it seemed that older employees were less motivated by extrinsically related features of a job, but more by intrinsically rewarding job features. Work motivation is strongly influenced by certain cultural characteristics. Between countries with comparable levels of economic development, collectivist countries tend to have higher levels of work motivation than do countries that tend toward individualism. Similarly measured, higher levels of work motivation can be found in countries that exhibit a long versus a short-term orientation. Also, while national income is not itself a strong predictor of work motivation, indicators that describe a nation's economic strength and stability, such as life expectancy, are. Work motivation decreases as a nation's long-term economic strength increases. Currently work motivation research has explored motivation that may not be consciously driven. This method goal setting is referred to as goal priming.
Reward management is concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies that aim to reward people fairly, equitably and consistently in accordance with their value to the organization.
Job characteristics theory is a theory of work design. It provides “a set of implementing principles for enriching jobs in organizational settings”. The original version of job characteristics theory proposed a model of five “core” job characteristics that affect five work-related outcomes through three psychological states.
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