TM - August 2007 - (Page 12) [capabilities] by Kenneth M. Nowack, Ph.D. Why 360-Degree Feedback Doesn’t Work A ccording to Jeffrey Pfeffer, Ph.D., Stanford University professor of organizational behavior, “If we practiced medicine like we practice management, we would have much more malpractice and a lot of mortality and morbidity.” A are only modest, inviting difficulty in knowing what the differences among groups really mean or where to put one’s energy to modify behavior. • Employees who tend to underestimate their skills and abilities likely will focus more on what they aren’t doing well rather than their strengths, despite popular books and consultants who argue human resources development system. • Use 360-feedback assessments with established psychometric properties. • Hold managers accountable for evaluating progress on a measurable and behavioral development plan. • Build a balanced score card metric of developmental planning of high-potential talent into the leader’s annual evaluation. • Build in a mechanism to measure The same seems particularly true of feedback interventions — research suggests that in one-third of all published studies for these cases, performance actually decreases. With an estiDespite its popularity, mated 90 percent of all Fortune 500 companies there are only a handful using 360-degree feedof longitudinal studies back, it’s time to underabout 360-degree stand the facts that vendors and coaches won’t feedback processes. tell you about the limitations of such feedback interventions. that leveraging strengths is more Despite its popularity, there are successful than emphasizing only a handful of longitudinal studwhat we don’t do well. ies about 360-degree feedback • Little research exists about processes. Although most suggest whether qualitative or quantitafeedback can be useful and powertive results in feedback reports ful, the claims of performance optimize acceptance and behavimprovement and behavior change ior change. as a result of 360-degree feedback • The effect size of behavior change often have been overstated relative with 360-feedback interventions to evidence available from pubis typically very low, suggesting lished research in this area. we must be realistic about how much employees will actually What Most Vendors change or become more effective. Won’t Tell You • Most 360-feedback instruments Although widely used, most 360measure competencies that are feedback interventions aren’t really highly correlated with one anoth- structured to ensure what they are er, making it difficult to discern designed to accomplish: to enable specific areas on which to focus talent to modify important behavior developmental efforts. and increase performance. • It is common to use average scores as a method to summarize rater input in 360-feedback reports, but without some indication of rater agreement, it is easy to misinterpret “polarized” feedback, leading to behavior change that might actually be inappropriate. • Correlations among rater groups August 2007 About the author Kenneth M. Nowack, Ph.D., is the president, co-founder and chief research officer of Envisia Learning. He can be reached at editor@TalentMgt.com. employees’ behavior change either by repeating the 360-feedback process or using more frequent and abbreviated change surveys. • Pay internal and external coaches using 360-feedback processes for behavior change and results, not just for coaching. • Ensure the 360-degree feedback reports have both qualitative and quantitative sections to appeal to diverse learning styles and have at least some way to evaluate rater agreement to clarify accurate interpretation and use. Organizations and practitioners must recognize the limitations of 360-degree feedback intervention for facilitating behavior change and work to eliminate the potential pitfalls if they want to avoid professional malpractice. In fact, the majority of 360-degree feedback interventions might do more harm than good, unless an effort is made to use evidencebased best practices such as: • Provide facilitated feedback by an internal or external consultant to increase understanding and acceptance of the results. • Link the 360 feedback to another 12 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
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