Influence and Change in Organizations - Essay Example

The ‘best practices’ primarily suggest clarity of purpose. This implies that the underlying problem needs to be identified – why is change needed and how these surveys could influence change. To implement best practices, the organization must be able to communicate and have a clear understanding with the employees on why the organization is undertaking the 360 degree feedback survey (Wimer & Nowack, 2006). There should be no assumptions that it would inevitably lead to enhanced leadership skills (McCarthy & Garavan, 2007).

This necessitates that the entire process must be explicitly explained which could help overcome management resistance. This would also ensure rater receptivity because unless the managers accept the feedback they would not engage in development planning. Beliefs about change influence acceptance and hence perceptions of fairness is essential. Multisource feedback is supposed to limit biases and hence anonymity of some raters may have to be maintained. Anonymous raters tend to be candid and positive and usually provide a higher rating (CCL, 2011).

However, who rates who is important and if managers are not receptive to certain raters, the effect of MSF is nullified. Thus while some raters should be anonymous, managers should also be allowed to choose some raters. If they are allowed to choose all the raters biases could creep in. Raters should be selected on the basis of the objective criteria and should be jointly selected by the rater and the rate. This would enhance acceptance and perceptions of fairness. To ensure employee readinesss, organizational culture should be supportive to conduct the 365-degree feedback survey (Morgeson, Mumford & Campion, 2005).

If the managers have the confidence in the system and perceive fairness, they would be highly likely to make changes. Specific training interventions could help educate the managers about the process, the intentions and the expected outcome (McCarthy & Garavan, 2007). Rater training may help eliminate errors and also help eliminate cynicism from within the organization as cynicism can reduce the impact of the MSF. Rater training should include, in addition to training in reliable and accurate ratings, discussions on how the survey instrument was created and how the information will be used.

Besides, anonymity should be assured through confidentiality (Morgeson, Mumford & Campion, 2005). Confidentiality of the rating process is also important and critical to the success of the process. The recipients or the raters too need to be trained in acceptance of the ratings and on how to handle negative feedback. Morgeson, Mumford and Campion (2005) found that most organizations used the surveys for developmental purposes and that it should categorically not be used to determine salaries.

When used for developmental purpose the data is the property of the people being rated while when used for administrative purposes, the organization owns the data. To achieve the best results, people should be given control of their own data (Wimer & Nowack, 2006). People will feel empowered if they can choose with whom and to what extent they share their feedback. However, the feedback recipient should have access to a trained feedback giver who has experience with assessment. The recipients should also be provided guidance on how to share data and use it constructively.

However, an overwhelming amount of data may