Tuesday, March 6, 2012

360 Feedback

Define upward feedback and 360 — degree feedback
What do you think of upward and 360 degree feedback? It is interesting to read in our textbook, “Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices,” that upward feedback is a new option, I had actually never heard of the concept because I have only received feedback from my managers in office settings. I like the idea that employee can give their boss feedback but I would be nervous to do so unless I really liked my job and did not fear any repercussions for being honest. In our book some questions come up that lead me to believe that there is a 50% chance this would work but I think it all depends on the corporate culture and the personality of the manager. I do not believe it will work in all cases because the managers will think their authority is being questioned where as if a manager treats everyone as equals and is encouraging the feedback then the information learned could be very useful in making positive changes (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009).
When the authors of our textbook mentioned the surveys that we take giving feedback to our teachers is considered upward feedback, sometimes I think it is a place for some students to whine if they did not get a good grade and instead I prefer to ask questions as the course goes along instead of waiting till the end. I have only taken a few of the survey’s but there was only one teacher that was not a good fit for me but I think that was based on the topic of the class which was technical writing. Our teacher wanted us to call him Captain Jack, although his was Doug I think he was trying to add some humor in the class but I am not a technical person and he thought I was too chatty. One of my friends from school really liked his style of teaching and even kept in touch with him after the class and she is now a fashion editor for Beauty Magazine. Given my lack of technicality I survived the class and asked questions as I went along so I knew I was getting instant feedback right away, surveys may help to bring attention to something that everyone is having a problem with in comparison to an individual.
360 feedback is a very interesting, but complicated process because there are a lot of factors to be covered and since the feedback can come from many different places for example team members, customers, suppliers and anyone who comes in contact with the person being reviewed (Chapman, 2011). When I worked in retail we would get feedback from customers called mystery shoppers the company I worked for hired people to come in and give us a critique of how they would rate their shopping experience. There would be list and categories that the shopper would be given and they would fill out the information and give it to our company (sometimes they are contracted through rating services like Beyond Hello) and they would be paid for their time shopping. I have done this before and attention is focused on so much detail for a five or ten minute visit it may be not a true rating. If someone is having a busy day and cannot great every person within 30 seconds of the customer entering the store the shopper will note this and maybe extra staff will be brought in as a result of the feedback.
Chapman suggests that rolling out a 360 feedback plan should be done taking many aspects into consideration such as that they should not be mandatory, that whether creating an online format or hard copy template that there should be room for the person being reviewed to write in their own comments (Chapman, 2011). He believes that the best way to introduce this type of program is through workshops, make a draft out and issue for approval and I like his word of pilot to suggest that this is a trial and the process can be changed or fined tuned (Chapman, 2011).  I think this process would work if the employer was looking to keep people for long-term because relationships take a long time to build and to make a company grow it is important to promote within. I also like the fact that the feedback is coming from more than one person and I would want to know who the person is giving the feedback because it would be more meaningful to me. Also, Chapman has written extensive articles about reviews and appraisal systems so it is important to note that some of the questions that can be asked in a traditional review would also fit the 360 but the question would be answered from many sources and not just one. I like this because hopefully everybody likes there manager but sometimes it just does not happen and having a co-worker come into the feedback process will enlighten the manager about some skill that they may be not aware that the employee does really well at.
One of the questions that I think are fair to ask are about problem solving- how well does this person solve problems, what are some of the strengths and weakness of this person’s ability to make solid choices to solve a problem. There are ways to give someone tips on how to do something better rather than coming out and saying it. In our book on page 201 I have to laugh every time I read the cartoon the employee is saying, “I work best when someone is looking over my shoulder and telling me that I’m a screw-up”. Although it is making light of the situation some managers are not very nice, sorry I keep on thinking of my manager when I am using examples I am really trying to get over that experience. Elaine would listen on to my calls at her desk and later on question me about why I told the customer something I did, we had a whole list of things that we had to say during the call or we would get marked down. We would have to ask the customer if they had any more questions and we would have to repeat the question until they were all set, if you missed one time you would get marked down. We had an overall scorecard that was our grading system and everyone especially me thought that they only focused on the negative, I had to ask the question, “So what do you think I am good at,” because I was tired of being told the negatives and there were a whole list of positives that I would have liked to share with them but they only block out the meeting times so there is only time for them to talk.
Having 360 feedback is important but having someone who can set up an extensive program that works may be hard to find, I think some employers would not even bother to put something like this in action because they only have short-term goals. I found out that my company generally keeps people for five or six months and if they have not met goals they are more likely to let this person go, even though they have interested training into this person. Truly I am really glad I am not at the company anymore it is just really tough collecting unemployment when I made really good money, when I was let go I was more worried about when I was going to the spa next and I was ready to leave.
What do you think?
Chapman, A. (2011, Decemeber 8). performance appraisals. Retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/performanceappraisals.htm

Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R.  (2009). Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills &   Best Practices (customized 4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

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