This essay contain information regarding leadership and management development via 360 degree feedback.

1. Developing leaders and managers via 360 degree feedback
2014
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 on leadership and management
development. So for this purpose, organizations together with HR team endeavor to
accomplish leadership development objectives by themselves 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 is 360 degree feedback which also play vital role in
developing leaders according to researchers. It has many benefits, whereas, it can
effect organization’s performance too if not used in 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 definitions of 360 degree feedback to understand
the 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”.
Wahab Khan
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2. Developing leaders and managers via 360 degree feedback
2014
360 degree feedback provide opportunity to managers to rate themselves in different
performance areas, and through feedback they can learn and compare others
appraisal with their self appraisal. It also provide information to supervisors from
external sources which improve their self awareness and 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 use 360 degree feedback
in some shapes. 360 degree evaluation is useful indicator which identifies
relationship between the leaders and the subordinates, in other words, a tool which
measures leadership behaviour. In addition, majority of the firms devise and
implement competency based leadership and management development. Therefore,
360 degree feedback technique helps organisations in identification of leadership
behaviour, 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 helps manager in identifying weaknesses in
workplace. 360 degree feedback assessment not only facilitates in measuring the
management behaviour 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 manner 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 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 behavioural
aspect or competencies. Thus, 360 degree feedback provide plenty of information on
leadership behaviours and competencies , and leaders or managers can be
effectively developed if appropriate goals 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, leader’s behaviour makes a big difference in
organisational culture, and 360 degree feedback tool is very useful in developing
leaders and managers. Organisations use innovative techniques, such as, action
Wahab Khan
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3. Developing leaders and managers via 360 degree feedback
2014
plan after receiving 360 degree feedback appraisal which 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. Furthermore, manager and employee develop
themselves after rating their behaviours from multiple sources and the information is
then used for further improvement, however, feedback obtained can 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
behaviours, and on 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 to accomplish 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 will help managers
in setting up developmental targets, however, information could be biased if it is
used for promotion or financial rewards.
To conclude the above discussion, 360 degree feedback technique like other tools
play significant role in leadership and management development. 360 degree
feedback helps organisations in identifying leadership behaviour, and most
importantly the valuable feedback regarding performance from 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 behaviours 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.
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Wahab Khan
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4. Developing leaders and managers via 360 degree feedback
2014
assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages
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permission from the Author.
Wahab Khan
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