Effectiveness of 360 Degree Feedback on Employee Performance

This report delves into the effectiveness of the 360-degree feedback mechanism in enhancing employee performance, examining its impact and exploring the reasons behind potential implementation failures within Sahra LLC. The report provides a comprehensive literature review, discussing how 360-degree feedback can unlock employee potential, improve learning, and enhance the overall performance management process. It analyzes the relationship between 360-degree feedback and employee performance, offering insights into the mechanism's benefits. Furthermore, the report examines a case study of Sahra LLC, discussing the steps followed in implementing the new system, and the reasons for the failed implementation of the 360-degree feedback mechanism. It concludes by providing recommendations to improve the effectiveness of 360-degree feedback implementation, ensuring a more successful and positive impact on employee performance and organizational outcomes.

Running head: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Performance management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the impact and effectiveness of 360 degree feedback
mechanism on improving the employee performance. In addition, this report also discussed about
the probable reason of failed implementation process of 360 degree feedback mechanism in
Sahra LLC. There are few recommended steps are also being discussed in this report, which will
help to prevent and obstacles and resistance in the implementing the feedback appraisal system.
Different scholarly articles are being used in order to determine the effectiveness of 360 degree
feedback appraisal system and it is concluded that it is having positive impact on the employee
performance.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
literature review...........................................................................................................................4
Realizing the unutilized potentiality of the employees................................................................4
Mode of learning and assessment................................................................................................4
Positive impact of feedback.........................................................................................................5
Enhancement of the performance management...........................................................................6
Relationship between 360 degree feedback and employee performance....................................6
Company profile..............................................................................................................................7
Steps followed in implementing new system ( evaluation )........................................................8
Reasons for failed implementation of 360 degree feedback mechanism........................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The current business scenario is becoming more employees centric and effectively
considering the welfare of them. On the other hand, performance enhancement of the employees
is also being taken care of. The key objective of initiating performance management by the
business organizations is to determine the performance of the employees along with their
effectiveness in the workplace (Anitha 2014, pp. 308). It enables the business organizations to
identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employees and appraise them accordingly. One of
the most effective and popular appraisal method used by the contemporary business
organizations is the 360 degree feedback mechanism. This mechanism is becoming more popular
in the recent time due to the reason that it provides holistic and compete feedback of the
employees.
This mechanism works on the feedback generated from different stakeholders in the
organization regarding the performance of a particular employee. In this case, the feedback from
both the superiors and subordinates of the employees is being gathered in order to have
holisticinformation regarding the employees (Espinilla et al. 2013, pp. 459-471). Thus, using of
the 360 degree feedback mechanism helps in reducing the biasness in appraising the performance
of the employees. In some cases, external stakeholders such as the customers are also being
involved in providing feedback of the employees.
This report will discuss about the effectiveness of 360 degree feedback mechanism in
improving the performance of the employees. Variousscholarly articles will be used in order to
evaluate the effectiveness of the 360 degree feedback mechanism. In addition, the reasons of not
able to successfully implementing the 360 feedback in Sahra LLC will also be discussed. This

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report will provide a few recommended steps in order to enhance the effectiveness of the 360
feedback mechanism in Sahra LLC.
literature review
Realizing the unutilized potentiality of the employees
There are various authors who are given the feedback regarding the use and effectiveness
of the 360 degree appraisal system. However, majority of them are having the opinion that
initiation of the 360 degree feedback mechanism will have favorable implication on the business
performance as well as on the organizational performance. According to Bracken and Church
(2013), initiation of the 360 degree appraisal system will help in capitalizing unrealized
potentiality of the employees. This is due to the reason that initiation of the 360 degree appraisal
system will help the business organizations to get to know the hidden talents of the employees,
which are not known earlier. Subordinates and the superiors working with the particular
employee will be able to identify the hidden talents. Thus, with the help of the 360 degree
appraisal system, these talents and potentiality will get communicated to the upper level
management. Management can able to initiate strategies in order to further enhance the hidden
talents of the employees and it will in turn improve the productivity of the employees.
Mode of learning and assessment
There are some other authors who have given the opinion that initiation of the 360 degree
feedback mechanism will help in having an effective and ideal mode of learning in the
organization (Tee and Ahmed 2014). This is due to the reason that 360 degree feedback
mechanism will help the upper level management to determine the negatives and positives of the
employees. Moreover, the authors have also stated that initiation of the 360 degree feedback

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mechanism will help the upper level management to learn about the performance of the
employees and what could be done in enhancing the performance of them. Thus, according to the
authors, initiation of the 360 degree feedback mechanism helps in having learning and
knowledge environment in the organization. in addition, with the identification of the diverse
knowledge about the employees, the learning environment in the organization will be more
varied and effective. This will also help in improving the performance of the employees due to
the reason that having effective learning environment in the organization will enable the
employees to have their issues gets solved more effectively.
Positive impact of feedback
According to the authors, 360 degree feedback system also helps in generating the
feedback of the employees. In addition, the authors have also stated that having the 360 degree
feedback mechanism will help in having holistic review about the performance of the employees.
Moreover, another advantage to be gained from the initiation of the 360degree feedback
mechanismis the opportunity to gather the information regarding the employees from different
sources. The information is more complete and holistic in nature. It will help the upper level
management to review and appraise the performance of the employees more holistically.
Employees will be appraised according to their performance and effectiveness in their
workplace. This will make the appraisal program more effective and employees will be more
motivated when they will get appraised according to their performance. Increase in the level of
the motivation will help to improve the performance of them.

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Enhancement of the performance management
According to Campion, Campion and Campion (2015), initiation of the 360 degree
performance appraisal will help in enhancing the entire process of performance management.
This is due to the reason that compared to the traditional mode of performance appraisal; 360
degree feedback system is more effective and holistic in nature. The authors have stated
thatperformance of the employees can only be enhanced when they will be given appraisal
according to their performance in their workplace. In the case of the traditional appraisal model,
employees are being judged only by the upper level management. Thus, the appraisal process
may get biased or having one sided information. This may lead to the ineffective appraisal for
the employees. On the other hand, the authors have also stated that with the help of the 360
degree feedback mechanism, diverse information can be gained. Moreover, it also enables the
management to match the diverse ideas gathered from different stakeholders. This will reduce
the chance of having any biasness in the appraisal process and will help the organization in
enhancing entire process of performance management.
Relationship between 360 degree feedback and employee performance
Authors such as Rai and Singh (2013) have stated that there is a direct relationship
between the 360 degree feedback mechanism and employee performance. According to the
authors, initiation of the 360 degree mechanism in the performance appraisal process helps in
having organizational justice. This is mainly due to the reason that initiation of the 360 degree
feedback mechanism will involve both the internal and external stakeholders and thus, the
probability of having fair and transparent process of appraisal is more. The more organizational
justice will be offered, the more fair and transparent will be the process of performance

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appraisal, and employee performance will get more improved. Moreover, according to the
authors, 360 degree feedback mechanism is the most effective among all the available methods
of performance appraisal. This will involve the maximum number of the stakeholders in the
appraisal process. Providence of the organizational justice will help to treat all the employees
equally and this will create positive impression among the employees. Therefore, having the 360
degree feedback mechanism influence the performance of the employees and is having direct
relationship between these two.
Evaluation of 360 degree feedback of Sahra LLC
Company profile
Sahra LLC is one of the major conglomerates based in Muscat. They are having their
market presence in different business sectors such as beauty products, cleaning products and
health products. Being a major business organization in Muscat, they are having good number of
employees in place belonging from different social and cultural backgrounds (Karkoulian,
Assaker and Hallak 2016, pp. 1862-1867). However, in the due course of their operation, they
had faced the issues of resistance in implementing the 360 degree feedback system in the
organization. The resistance was mainly originated from the side of the employees. Ultimately, it
was discontinued in the organization two years ago. Thus, this is one of rare examples where
employees resisted the implementation of the 360 degree feedback mechanism.
Reasons for not implementing the system successfully
The 360 degree feedback system was not implemented successfully due to the reason
that, all the employees are not communicated properly about the implementation of the system.
Thus, the employees were reluctant about the benefits of the system and thus resisted. It is aso

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identified that the older system was not implemented in a holistic basis and thus all the internal
stakeholders were not having the access to rate others. This also caused dissatisfaction among the
lower level employees.
Steps followed in implementing new system ( evaluation )
Sahra LLC, two years ago failed to implement 360 degree feedback due to the resistance
and lack of cooperation with the system, which led to stop it. But later, the company again
decided to use this system despite its failure. However, they have initiated a new way in
implementing the sysem in place. The steps followed are:
1. External conulstants are being hired in order to implement the system. It is done to
prevent the previous reasons for failure and have expertise knowledge in place. In
addition, the reasons for failure in the previous time are also identified and rectified in the
present system. This wil ensure in having a full proof feedback system in place.
2. Employees are involved in the process and they are communicated about the new system.
All the staffs are being informed about the implementation process of the new system.
This will help them in having the idea about why the company is changing the system,
why is it implementing and how it uses and what to benefit from it.
3. Sahra LLC has linked ratings of the performance of employees with rewards in order to
motivate employees to participate effectively with the system and develop their
performance and give them the desire and determination to reach the goals of the
company. Thus, the employees will have the idea about how to peform better in having
better reward and benefits. The rewards will be given according to the rating results of
performance in order to encourage them to do their best.

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4. Sahra LLC Company has provided training for all the employees to train them on how to
rate the others. Moreover, they are also being given training about how their performance
will be rated. In addition, the document training will be given to all staffs from top
management to lower managements in order to observe, evaluate and record behaviors
and performance of targeted employees.
5. Sahra LLC has made a sample survey on the website to order to provide it for all
employees to fill and practice on it in order to ensure all employees are having the clear
understanding about the system. Moreover, it is also communicated to the employees that
in case of any doubts and issues, they can anytime approach to the HR for further details.
Reasons for failed implementation of 360 degree feedback mechanism
There are various reasons being identified behind the failed attempt of implementing the
360 degree feedback mechanism in Sahra LLC.
 The key reason of failed implementation process is the lack of gathering opinion of the
employees before initiating the 360 degree feedback mechanism. In the case study, it is
stated that the CEO of the company decided to implement the system in the organization.
However, the opinions of the employees arenot being gathered. This caused negative
impression among the employees that 360 degree feedback will reduce the appraisal for
them. Thus, they resisted in the implementation process.
 Another challenge identified is not designing the 360 degree feedback system according
to the specific needs of the employees. This was important becauserequirements of the
employees are different in different organizations and implementing universal approach
will not appraise the employees effectively. In the case of Sahra LLC, universal approach

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of the 360 degree feedback mechanism is being implemented, which caused issues with
the employees. Their requirements are not being met effectively and caused resistance
from the side of them.
Recommendations
 It is recommended that the 360 degree feedback mechanism should be designed after
ensuring the confidentiality of the employee data. Proper steps and measures should be
taken especially in the case of the online mode. There are no provision for maintaining
confidentiality stated in the new system.
 In the new system, employees are communicated about the implementation process.
However, it is recommended that feedback and opinion from the employees should also
be gathered in order to understand their issues and problems. The new system should be
implemented in accordance to that.
 It should also be communicated to the employees that their bonuses will be determined
by the ratings received. On the other hand, they should also be informed that their ratings
will determine the promotion and review of their seniors. This will ensure that employees
will have the impression that they will be treated equally in the new system.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that 360 degree feedback mechanism is one of the most
effective forms of feedback generating systems for the business organizations. This report
discussed about the effectiveness of the 360 degree feedback mechanism in Sahra LLC. It is
discussed in this report that Sahra LLC is having number of issues being faced by them, which
caused in the failure of the implementation process of the feedback mechanism. Different

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challenges being faced by them are discussed in this report. In accordance to these challenges,
there are some recommended steps also discussed in this report. it is expected that the effective
implementation of the discussed recommended steps will help them in having an efficient 360
degree feedback mechanism in place. In relation to the scholarly articles used in this report, it
can be concluded that initiation of the 360 degree feedback mechanism will have majority of the
positive implications on the organization.

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Reference
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Bach, S., 2013. Performance management. Managing human resources: Human resource
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Feedback is good, feedback-friendly culture is better. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie
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Bateh, J., Castaneda, M.E. and Farah, J.E., 2013. Employee resistance to organizational change.
International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 17(2), p.113.
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Campion, M.C., Campion, E.D. and Campion, M.A., 2015. Improvements in performance
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pp.85-93.
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