Section Four360-Degree Feedback
Performance feedback from superiors, peers, and subordinates
can provide good information for developmental purposes. One
of the problems with performance evaluations in which only
superiors rate their subordinates is that performance is
evaluated from only one direction or perspective. While a
manager may appear to be performing well when viewed from
above, a very different evaluation may be obtained if evaluated
from below from the subordinate’s perspective. For example, a
manager may be taking driving subordinates in order to achieve
short-term results instead of leading, motivating, and
developing them for the future. In addition, when viewed from
a horizontal perspective, a manager’s peers at the same level
may have a very different evaluation as well, particularly if the
manager does not cooperate with other departments and
focuses only on the welfare of his or her own unit to the
detriment of the organization as a whole. Because of these
limitations of traditional top-down performance evaluation
approaches, it is no surprise that 360-degree feedback systems
have been almost universally adopted among Fortune 500 firms
and in many other companies. Companies using 360-degree
feedback systems include Shell Oil, Exxon, IBM, Caterpillar, GE,
AT&T and Levi Strauss.^10 Otis Elevator has even implemented a
360degree feedback system on the Internet with encryption for
security purposes. Evaluators can simply perform the evaluation