Upward Appraisals and Employee Surveys
On feedback upwards, appraisals to supervisors and supervisors:
I think we need to separate two different functions - one is judging (my manager does this or that well or badly), and providing critical information or feedback to help the manager do his or her job, and support the employee in getting their jobs done.
If we are talking about judging, then I suspect David is correct. If we are talking about getting information from employee to manager about how the manager can be more useful, then it’s a different story.
One of the major complaints I hear from managers is that their employees won’t talk to them or keep them in the loop. Some of that is a result of managerial behavior that does not invite such comments, but some of it is because is usually no forum for providing those comments for most employees.
So, like any appraisal, filling out a form for upward “judging” is probably pointless, except in a few work units the fulfil some preconditions (mature, stable, high trust).
On the other hand, I counsel managers that performance management should be BI-DIRECTIONAL, since the bottom line is that both parties need information from the other for the purpose of maximizing performance and satisfaction. So, part of performance planning, goal setting, and performance reviews SHOULD involve managers soliciting information about how they can be more helpful to each employee.