360 Degree Feedback Practices

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Fleenor & Prince (1997) state that the idea of obtaining feedback from multifarious resources, as related to performance can be attributed to German military officials as early as World War II. The actual earliest recorded use of 360 degree feedback tool can be traced to the 1950’s. “This tool was used at at Esso Research and Engineering Company“(Bracken, Dalton, Jako, McCauley, & Pollman, 1997). The 360 degree feedback tool is used by employers to obtain and measure detailed information that is provided by anyone that has contact with a specific employee. It is completely confidential and provides detailed feedback on strengths and weaknesses of the employee in performing his/her assigned duties. This holistic approach analyzes performance from numerous angles; usually the individual being evaluated will also perform a self-evaluation as part of this process. One advantage in utilizing a tool such as this is an improved understanding of how you are perceived by management, peers and co-workers; it will also allow for a heightened self-awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses. This tool alone should not be used as a “measure” or indicator of how well an employee is performing duties-but rather as an assessment to analyze leadership potential, and other development processes like training, matching job skills, mentoring and coaching in the work environment. Questions for a 360 degree feedback survey should fundamentally be based on developmental ideologies. Behavior is more important than feelings in these surveys; this will help those evaluated understand how they react in specific situations and scenarios, rather than “re-act” negatively or dismissively to assessment, the focus is on how they performed in those same situations. Break Through consultants (2011) states that “360 feedback should be a developmental process. It should not be linked to
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