inked to individual growth, which in turn is linked to self-awareness." (Kincaid, 1999, p. 66) One of the most effective ways to increase self-awareness is by providing feedback to employees on their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Such feedback is designed to improve the individual, which will in turn prompt improvement for the overall organization. Feedback is not only important for employees to improve their technical skills, it can be a motivation tool. Feedback is "an important source of motivating potential on the job and its presence has been proposed to lead to increased satisfaction and motivation." (DeNisi, 2000 p. 29).
The traditional way of providing information to employees for their development or appraisal is to use a process where a manager reviews his or her subordinates usually on a yearly or bi-yearly basis.
Every business as well as every non-profit agency needs good supervision - whether the person in charge of organizing the work flow is called a supervisor, a manager, or something else (Ackoff & Privett, 1963, p. 39). Part of that manager's traditional responsibility has been to provide feedback. While this paper argues that 360-degree evaluation is more useful than top-down evaluation, it also argues that top-down evaluation is more useful than no regular evaluation whatsoever in terms of promoting the development of every employee - but only if it is done in a fair and consistent manner. Further, many (although not all) of the aspects of 360-degree evaluation that make it so useful are also present in top-down evaluation.
Whether an office uses top-down or 360-degree evaluation affects the corporate culture of an organization. When most people hear the word "culture" they probably think of something vaguely anthropological - dancers with elaborate masks and long-trailing costumes or initiation rites involving dark secrets and frightened initiates. But while these realms are certainly full of cultural ...