A large project engineering company assigns engineering, purchasing, marketing and support staff to client-based projects lasting anywhere from four months to one year.The project staff report to both the project leader and the manager of their functional specialization.For example, a marketing employee in Project Z would receive day-to-day instructions from the Project Z manager, but would receive career development guidance from the company's director of marketing.The functional manager also places employees in future projects.In the past, project staff were evaluated by the employee's project leader at the time of the annual performance evaluation.However, some employees complained that they had just started the project, so the project leader didn't know their performance.The company wants to introduce a 360-degree feedback process to overcome this issue and other problems with the performance evaluation system.Describe the specific characteristics of a 360-degree feedback process for project staff at this company and identify two problems that the company should know about 360-degree feedback systems.

To answer this question, students need to describe the 360-degree process in this context and they need to identify two problems with 360-degree feedback.
The 360-degree process for project staff can take a few forms, but the following description is probably the most common one.Once or possibly twice each year, the company would collect feedback about specific employees from a representative group of people around that employee.In this setting, the current and former project leaders over the past year would contribute feedback, as would a sample of employees in the current and past projects over the past year.These projects are client-based, so the company might ask clients for feedback, where appropriate.It isn't clear whether these staffers have subordinates, but, if so, lower-level employees would also submit feedback about the employee.
One issue in this process is who would collect and process this multisource feedback and discuss the results with the employee.While there is no absolutely correct answer here, probably the best choice would be the employee's functional manager (e.g.the director of marketing for marketing employees).Functional heads are logical choices because they are responsible for the employee's career development and oversee the employee's project placement.Thus, the various sources of feedback would submit their comments and ratings to the employee's functional manager.The functional manager would organize this information and discuss it with the employee.
The textbook identifies the following four potential problems with 360-degree feedback.Students need to identify any two of these (although other logical problems with multisource feedback should also receive credit):
Costs.360-degree feedback can be expensive and time-consuming because several people take time to review several other employees.