Organizational Psychology Honest and Meaningful Feedback Strategies

¶ … Gathering Feedback

Benefits and Drawbacks of Formal 360-Degree Assessments

When implemented appropriately in organizations, the formal 360-degree assessment system can offer some benefits, such as in connection with the "full picture" element of your fit into the organization. It allows your performance to be measured more broadly than operational-task-related feedback generated from immediate coworkers. The fact that multiple coworkers contribute feedback can sometimes help organizations identify the source of problems or delays, and determining the optimal resolution to conflicts in the workplace. In ideal situations and applications, 360-degree assessment systems can also help measure whether others consider you to share a mindset or source of motivation that matches the organization's mission and values. A drawback to the 360 approach is that it relies on feedback from others who are not necessarily skilled or experienced giving feedback, and the error rate is usually higher than a direct supervisor's feedback, for example. Expanding the number of individuals providing simultaneous feedback for each coworker increases the susceptibility of the assessment process to office politics, personal animus, or artificial manipulation through quid-pro-quo agreements to provide positive feedback.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Gathering Feedback Directly from Others

Unlike formal assessment systems, feedback generated directly from coworkers is usually initiated more spontaneously and immediately than feedback generated by the formal 360-degree assessment system. Feedback is most valuable when it comes from other individuals who work directly with you and it can be especially helpful when it occurs unprompted. Direct feedback typically corresponds to specific changes that are recommended in the realm of performance issues noticed by members of the same working unit or team. By contrast, information generated by the 360-degree approach typically comes from individuals with limited firsthand knowledge of exactly what you might do to improve your work performance. Another benefit of gathering feedback directly from others is that feedback is less likely to be affected by other relationships or office politics than the feedback from some of those within the 360-degree assessment group.

Steps to Increase Meaningful Honest Feedback from Others

Most of the steps used to increase the meaningfulness of feedback relate to common sense in connection with obvious good time and bad times to discuss it. There is a time and a place for everything, including soliciting feedback from others at work. One of the best ways to increase meaningful feedback is to conduct yourself in a way, in general, that gives others a reason to expect you to appreciate constructive criticism. It is helpful to communicate explicitly that you appreciate constructive criticism and it would be ideal to express that in a general conversation where one another's work performance is not yet known, such as when the team or work group is formed. That is also largely common sense, because it is always easiest to talk about how to resolve any potential problem before there actually is any specific problem to resolve.