INTRODUCTION TO 360 DEGREE FEEDBACK

360 degree feedback is a full circle, multi-source and

multi-rater system of obtaining information from peers,
subordinates, and internal and external customers, about
the employee’s performance.

Superior

Customers Employee Peers

Self-rating

Direct report
 Definition

“The 360 degree feedback process involves

collecting perceptions about a person’s
behaviour and the impact of that behaviour
from the person's boss or bosses, direct
reports, colleagues, fellow members in the
project team, internal and external customers
and suppliers.” - Lepsinger, 1997
How 360 Degree Feedback System Adds Value?

• The multi-rater feedback gives a comprehensive view of an

individual’s performance;
• It captures unique information, which other methods
usually cannot;
• It serves to complement supervisory feedback as the only
source for performance standards;
 How 360 Degree Feedback System Adds Value?

• It promotes a new psychological contract and increases the

understanding about one’s role expectations;
• It focuses on competency framework in various roles;
• It promotes self-directed learning and provides a road map for
employees’ development planning;
• It builds in action-orientation around the self monitoring of gaps
in performance between others’ expectations and a person’s
perceived performance
How 360 Degree Feedback System Adds Value?

• It helps everyone to work for a common standards and

institutionalizes performance management;
• It promotes commitment to good work among people;
• It acts as a key relationship-building tool to enhance team
processes and work relationships;
• It is an important monitoring and regulatory device.
 How 360 Degree Feedback System Adds Value?

• It empowers individuals to obtain a realistic assessment of their

strengths and areas of improvement;
• It helps in the strategic integration and alignment of
performance management, keeping in view the new
organisational complexities;
• It creates mechanisms for integrating multiple constituencies
and inputs and facilitates the development of an appropriate
culture for competitive advantage; and
• It facilitates organisational transformation.
 Why Should an Organisation Use 360 Degree
Feedback?

• Is the company in a position to meet the new challenges and

the increasing competition with the existing competencies of
its employees?
• Are the people in the organisation aware of the organisation’s
future behavioural needs to ensure its success?
• Does the changing environment call for a change in people’s
behaviour?
 Why Should an Organisation Use 360 Degree
Feedback?

• Does the training and development system reflect and is it

equipped to cater to current and future requirements of
jobs/positions/roles?
• Is there an alignment in the behaviour of people with the
organisation’s vision, mission and values?
• Do people in the organisation receive feedback on their
behaviour and performance from more than one source?
 Challenges ….
• Insufficient communication
• No training
• culture shock
• non-timely feedback
• data errors
• administrative overhead
 Challenges...
• There will be some inconsistencies,
particularly in ratings which include :
• One group may have more opportunities than
others to observe certain managerial skills
• The manager may actually behave differently
towards bosses, peers and direct reports
 Challenges...
• One group may have different expectations
than others of the manager
• Once you start down this path, it is
extremely difficult to turn back
• There exists very little research on how this
process is linked to individual development
 Challenges...
• Difficult to expect honest assessment from
colleagues who are competing
• The idea of being assessed in this way can
be intimidating to even the most
enlightened manager
• It might turn out into a vicious weapon
rather than a useful tool
 Experience of GE
• Feed back introduced in 1980
• trigger was the problems in operations
• outcome was a redefined leadership - the
appraisal system was critical to identify the
leaders
• process was necessary to survive
competition
 Telco experience
• Introduced to change the mind set
• the experience proved powerful in this
context
• feedback given to bring in requisite
improvement in their mindsets and attitudes
 Tata tea experience
• To shift paradigm in the behaviour of people
starting from top
• clear need felt for shifts from production to
marketing and for building the marketing and
distribution depth to face competition
• approach was effective in making the top
management appreciative of this change in
trend
 NIIT experience
• Introduced to (a) to get the benefits of
multiple source feed back (b) promotion of
core values and traits © reinforcement of
non-hierarchical culture and (d) useof this
as a development tool
• use as a dev tool contributed to the dev of
core traits and attributes leading to a
performance oriented culture in NIIT
 Philips experience
• Introduced for dev of leadership competencies
• this is being used for selection and dev
purposes and high potential candidates are
trained in the competencies
• it has helped it to develop a common
competency framework for its employees
which is linked with organizational values and
goals
 Johnson & Johnson experience
• Introduced in 94-94 under Standard of
Leadership model
• the organization exp indicates that this
should be used only for developmental
purposes and should never be used as a
substitute of the PMS