360 Degree Appraisal

The 360 degree appraisal or 360 feedbacks is generally known as the “multi-rater feedback,” “multi-source feedback” or the “multi-source assessment.” This feedback comes back to the employee from all around, whether it’s from his/her peers, subordinates manager or supervisors. The term “360” is used in terms of 360 degrees, which shows the comparison of this process with a circle.  Because feedback is provided from all around the employee and is based on the year round performance, this name sticks and suits this process. However this process also includes a self assessment and in most cases feedback is also taken from external sources such as customers of the company, or suppliers with whom the employee interacts with in the work area. This tool is actually part of the performance appraisal process, which is conducted annually by managers and supervisors to determine the worth of the employee in an organization for future improvement or rewards. Though in performance appraisal employee’s are only reviewed by their managers, this tool requires the employee to be rated by almost all related employees in the office.

The results from these feedbacks or appraisals are used by the person for whom the appraisal is being done, so that the information can be used for future development and training. These results may also be used by the organization to determine pay cuts or pay increases or demotions and promotions. When these assessments are used for employee jobs and pay reviews, then these tools are called “360-degree review.” Though there have been many discriminative controversies regarding this factor, whether this should be used as developmental purposes by organizations or just for appraisal purposes. “There is also controversy regarding whether 360-degree feedback improves employee performance, and it has even been suggested that it may decrease shareholder value” (Pfau & Kay, 2002).

[adsense1]If the perception of others on how well one performs at his/her job is important to an individual then, evaluating that and taking suitable actions on that feedback should be part of ones jobs as well as being part of the job requirements. The 360 appraisal is almost an irresponsible practice conducted by organizations, because they are resigned to human resource departments or survey companies. How can organizations achieve accurate results about their employees, if everyone is evaluating them, how accurate can that information be if most employees are not having good work relationships with each other, and even if they are who is to say that the evaluations are not biased?