There is a quote by Benjamin Franklin “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”. Organizations plan for the development of their staff, and one key area which almost all of the organizations invest heavily is leadership and management development. So for this purpose, organizations together with HR team endeavor to accomplish leadership development objectives either by their own HR team or they seek external consultants help. There are many developmental techniques such as coaching and mentoring which can be used for management development, another important tool which also play vital role in developing leaders according to studies is 360 degree feedback. It has many benefits, whereas, it can effect organization’s performance too if it is not used in an appropriate manner. Therefore, 360 degree feedback technique in leadership and management development process will be specifically discussed here.
It will be appropriate to start with some definitions of 360
degree feedback in order to understand its meaning. Drew
(2009: pg. 582) states that:
“A
360-degree feedback survey, typically, is where an individual leader’s staff,
peers, and supervisor are invited to provide scores on a range of questions
relevant to their leadership role. The leader (ratee) also provides “self”
scores against which the perceptions of others are compared”.
Rensburg
and Prideaux (2006: pg. 563) state that:
“MSF
(also known as 360-degree or multi-rater feedback) is a process of gathering
and feeding back useful and relevant information on an individual from a number
of different sources. The individuals usually evaluate themselves as well as
receiving feedback from a number of potential sources within and external to
the organisation – superiors, peers, subordinates and in some cases, clients or
customers. Each source of feedback provides a particular feedback emphasis
depending on the type of relationship that exists”.
360
degree feedback provides opportunity to managers to rate themselves in various performance related areas, and through feedback they can learn and compare other's
appraisals with their own appraisal. It also provides information to supervisors
from external sources which identify their self awareness and boost performance.
Moreover,
main purpose of 360 degree feedback is to enlarge leader’s awareness in various
circumstances which will not only enable the leader to improve but also perform
better next time with the raters or individuals that he or she interacts on a
daily basis. Leadership and management development programs often use 360
degree feedback: around 90 percent of fortune 1000 firms have used 360 degree feedback
in some shapes. 360 degree evaluation is useful indicator which identifies
relationship between the leaders and their subordinates, in other words, a tool
which can measures leaders' behavior. Majority of the firms also devise
and implement competency based leadership and management development approach. Therefore,
360 degree feedback technique help organisations in identifying key areas of behavior, and most importantly the valuable feedback regarding
performance from subordinates.
360
degree feedback improve self-awareness, rating himself and then comparing his
rating with subordinates or peers help managers in identifying weaknesses in
workplace. It not only facilitates in measuring the
management behavior at various developmental levels, but also indicates the
relationship between them as well. However, it may not be accurate assessment in
managerial performance as it can present stereotypes of supervisors or mindset
of those doing the 360 degree appraisal. Thereby, 360 degree feedback can
improve self awareness in managers, however, it should be cautiously examine
before applying because of stereotyping factor associated with it.
Firms
exercise multi sourcing feedback as a mean to influence leadership change, however,
multi sourcing feedback should be conducted in a way that managers must be psychologically
prepared for developing leadership skills. 360 degree feedback from peers,
managers and outside partners on individual manager performance play
significant role in the managerial development, as 360 degree feedback objective
is to provide accurate measurement which will furnish additional information to
the managers, and thus it will facilitate managers to identify hindrances in the development process. However, 360 degree feedback also depends on the nature of
the business, such as, customer’s feedback can be useful as well but generally managers
in 360 degree feedback are rated on different behavioral aspect or
competencies. Thus, 360 degree feedback provide plenty of information on
leader's behaviors and competencies , and leadership skills can be
effectively developed if clear objectives are set based on change and
development agenda.
Leadership
development will work only when managers are encouraged to openly hear and
accept feedback, in other words, to unfreeze their self analysis and most
importantly accepting organisational action plan for their development. Managers
obtain better self-awareness with the help of 360 degree feedback, and HR managers
must specifically design developmental plan together with proper reviews about
the progress on performance. Moreover, 360 degree feedback assessment assist in
changing organizational culture as it has been proven from the results of cultural
survey, therefore, leadership behavior can make a big difference in organisational
culture, and 360 degree feedback can be very useful in organizational change. Organisations use innovative techniques, such as, action plan after
receiving 360 degree feedback appraisal that helps in identifying weakness and
develop new leadership skills. Therefore, it is not only individual manager
responsibility to develop him or herself with the help of 360 degree feedback technique,
but organisations must also provide learning environment for leadership
development which can be done by setting up action plan with a proper review
mechanism.
360
feedback is one the powerful tools in human resources development which help
leaders in boosting self awareness. Managers and employees develop
them-self after rating their behaviors via multiple sources and the
information is then used for further improvement, however, feedback obtained should only be used for the development purposes only. 360 degree feedback on one hand
provides plenty of information from different sources for managerial reflection,
self awareness and behaviors, and on the other hand, different stake holders might
have various plans and results could be biased. Therefore, feedback from
different sources should be carefully examined particularly in important
decisions: feedback regarding promotions or financial rewards. 360 degree
feedback is useful when evaluating leadership skills from their subordinates in
small groups of ten people with individual feedback, other than that
counselling by CEO will add value if they become part of development program. Mangers
collect information from multi sources feedback: peers and subordinates, and
set developmental targets for accomplishment which helps in checking their
performance reviews. Thus, 360 degree feedback is a smart tool in developing
leadership skills, it provides load of information which help managers in setting
up developmental targets, however, information could be biased if it is used
for promotion or financial rewards.
Therefore, like other tools, 360 degree feedback technique play significant role in leadership and management development. It helps organisation in identifying leadership behaviors, and most importantly
the valuable feedback regarding performance from their subordinates. It can improve
self awareness in managers, however, it must be cautiously examine before
applying because of stereotyping factor associated with it. 360 degree feedback
provides plenty of information on leadership behaviors and competencies, and
leaders or managers can be effectively developed if appropriate goals are set
based on change and development agenda. It is not only individual manager
responsibility to develop him or herself with the help of 360 degree feedback
technique, but organisations must also provide learning environment for
leadership development, which can be done by setting up action plan with a proper
review mechanism. 360 degree feedback is a smart tool in developing leadership skills,
it provides load of information which will help managers in setting up
developmental targets, however, information could be biased if it is used for
promotion or financial rewards. So, organizations or HR practitioners should remember the above mentioned points when using 360 degree feedback tool.
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