360 – Degree Appraisal:
Yet another method used to appraise the employee’s performance is 360 – degree appraisal. This method was first developed and formally used by General Electric Company of USA in 1992. Then, it travelled to other countries including India. In India, companies like Reliance Industries, Wipro Corporation, Infosys Technologies, Thermax, Thomas Cook etc., have been using this method for appraising the performance of their employees. This feedback based method is generally used for ascertaining training and development requirements, rather than for pay increases.
Under 360 – degree appraisal, performance information such as employee’s skills, abilities and behaviours, is collected “all around” an employee, i.e., from his/her supervisors, subordinates, peers and even customers and clients.
In other worlds, in 360-degree feedback appraisal system, an employee is appraised by his supervisor, subordinates, peers, and customers with whom he interacts in the course of his job performance. All these appraisers provide information or feedback on an employee by completing survey questionnaires designed for this purpose.
All information so gathered is then compiled through the computerized system to prepare individualized reports. These reports are presented to me employees being rated. They then meet me appraiser—be it one’s superior, subordinates or peers—and share the information they feel as pertinent and useful for developing a self-improvement plan.
In 360 – degree feedback, performance appraisal being based on feedback “all around”, an em-ployee is likely to be more correct and realistic. Nonetheless, like other traditional methods, this method is also subject to suffer from the subjectivity on the part of the appraiser. For example, while supervisor may penalise the employee by providing negative feedback, a peer, being influenced by ‘give and take feeling’ may give a rave review on his/her colleague.
