Ldr 531 - 360 Degree Assessment

360-Degree Assessment

Mark Bell, Antonio James, Jody Coy, and Bob Carter

LDR 531

July 8, 2013

Jean Geer

360-Degree Assessment

 “A 360-degree assessment is the process in which employees receive confidential, anonymous feedback from the people who work around them. This typically includes the employee's manager, peers and direct reports” ("What Is A 360 Degree Assessment?", 2013, p. 1).  It is an effective way to get feedback, often against a set of pre-defined leadership competencies.

A common use of 360-degree feedback is for teaching and developing the participants’ appraisal, resourcing and succession planning, and support pay decisions (HR Nutshell, 2011).

Benefits of the Survey

        The benefits of using the 360-degree survey (360 Reach- Personal brand assessment, 2009) include the experience of choosing brand attributes and conducting research, which are two steps to create a personal brand (Quast, 2013).  The 360-degree electronic presentation allows the individual to move rapidly through the assessment.  The assessment is also designed to use responses from others to provide much-needed feedback in areas of perceived attributes and image. This feedback is a valuable in the communication process and allows follow-on activities such as assessing their own survey responses, and determining the best way to determine and implement their interpersonal skills.  When presented in a positive manner, feedback can reduce conflict in the working environment and can alleviate many employee frustrations.

The 360-degree survey sets a foundation for establishing personal brands.  Identifying personal brands is a hot topic in today’s business world.  Just as there have been significant amounts of material published about differentiation strategies for products, there is a growing demand for individuals to determine and develop a brand that differentiates them from others.  The growth of social and business networks on the Internet has made this a priority for many individuals (Labrecque, Markos, & Milne, 2011).  

Advantages and Disadvantages of Survey

There are advantages and disadvantages in conducting the assessment in the form of a combination of self-administered and respondent Internet surveys.  Advantages include low cost, real-time access, wide audience range and no interview apprehension.  Disadvantages include potentially low response rates, inability to clarify questions, and the respondent needs to be computer literate (FAO, n.d.)  

The results from this survey are hard to determine.  The survey responses were capable of being forwarded to other respondents but the responses had to be manually entered instead of being completed automatically.  There was no apparent method of verifying that the surveys were forwarded to others.  Because there is a possibility of not receiving feedback, there is likelihood of misdirected branding which can result in unexpected, unwanted perceptions (FAO, n.d.).