Electronic survey

Many organizations have been started using this kind of survey as it is easy to implement,

gather and use the information. Electronic surveys are usually lest costly, and it is easier to

manage and modify even in last minutes. Also making and delivering the report of the survey are

easier in this type of survey, and it takes much less time than traditional format (Rogelberg,

2007).

For reaching success in designing and implementing an effective 360-feedback, some

questions and definition should be answered and cleared for both organization and individuals.

First step is describing the definition of this approach and the benefits of this process.

As It can guess by its name, it is a kind of feedback approach that collect the date about

the consequences of behaviors an individual on the people around him/her and the environment

form multiple sources. 360-degree feedback can provide a good opportunity to not only make

connection manager behavior to organizational performance, but it also helps employees to

understand how their supervisors, coworkers, clients and the people around their business

observe and interpret their behaviors (3 chapter one).

Second step is what data and information will be collected in this process, and how this

process will be done. Knowledge, style and skill (…………….)are the factors that gathered in

the process ( Figure 1).

However, other factors such as the individual’s role and level, the norms in the work, the

nature of problems should be considered in choosing the right kind of information.

 In this approach, questions are designed in a way that evaluate specific behavior of an

individual. For this purpose, questionnaire and one-to-one interview are the common way to

collect the data and information. Questionnaires is included some multiple-choice questions, and

in this strategy, individuals should be informed about the reasons their opinions are gathered, and

the ways the organization use their data.

Change management

This approach can support the change this is implemented in the organization by clearing

the employees what right behaviors they need to show in order to support the organization’s

goals. By asking the staff to evaluate others for their specific behaviors, they will be find out

what behaviors will be rewarded and what behaviors will not.

Individual and team performance

It can also motivate people to know and care more about their role and responsibilities,

and find ways to improve the necessary skills that they need to make progress in the career job.

This paper will use different approaches for designing effective 360-feedback

questionnaires.
Likert Scale

In fact, Rensis Likert designed this strategy to make the Thurstone scaling approach

simpler. Each scale has some degree, and individuals choose the option based on the level of

their agreement/disagreement with the statement (Figure ..).

Figure… different levels in Likert test (…from Likert, 1932)

Advantages

This strategy is the most well-known method in the world, so it can be a common

language across the worlds, and most people can understand it easily. Also, instead of saying a

simple yes or no to a specific question, individuals have opportunity to express the degree they

agree or disagree with the question.

Disadvantage

There was some evidence that this system gives not a reliable result as people tend to

select neutral response that is considered as a central tendency bias (James, Demaree & Wolf,

1984). To be more specific, when individuals do not have confidence to choose the right option,

they will choose the middle option. there are also other forms of bias that can affect the

reliability of the results like social desirability, which is individual ’s tendency to show

him/herself in a way that he/she will be seen positive and acceptable by applying the socially

accepted norms and behaviors (Janne, & Gary, 2003).

Likert’s recommendation

Likert also recommend a 30-day retest to evaluate the reliability of the first test. In the

second test, the individuals did not recall their answers in the original test, and this can express

their opinion honestly.

Thurstone scale

This approach was made by Louis Leon Thurstone, which was the first measurement

strategy to evaluate attitudes of individuals. In this system , the question is designed in a way that

clearly measures an attitude toward an specific issue. in the scaling system, a format with 11

points is designed in a way that 11 represent the most favorable, and 1 presents the most

unfavorable.

Disadvantage

It is a time-consuming process to design the test.

It is a complicated process for implementing and administration.

Guttman scale

louis Guttman, who was the founder of institute of Applied Social Research in 1947 in

Israel, designed a strategy which is called cumulative scaling (…book……). In this strategy, the

questions are designed and ordered hierarchically. In this hierarchical system, individual should

agree or disagree with the statement, and when people disagree with a specific statement, it

means that they are also disagreed with the following questions.

Advantages

Disadvantages

It takes times to design the questionnaire.

Open ended question

this question will bring a significant amount of information from the test taker, however

the process of interpretation of the results will be more complex and time-consuming

(Rogelberg, 2007).

References

James, L. R., Demaree, R., & Wolf, G. (1984). Estimating within-group interrater

reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(1), 85–98.

Retrieved from http: people. sabanciuniv . edu /_gokaygursoy / ISTATISTIK OLD/BOLUM

CALISMALARI/ILL/2007/OnlineSaglananDokumanlar/12192.pdf

Janne, C., & Gary S., M. (2003). Exploring Social Desirability Bias. Journal Of Business

Ethics, (4), 291.

Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology,

22(140), 1–55.

Rogelberg, S. G., & Sage Publications, i. (2007). Encyclopedia of Industrial and

Organizational Psychology. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc.