Mayur’s Turnaround: 360-Degree Feedback – Not One More Human Resource Process
Nautek International (Nautek) was one of the leading corporate giants in India. It started its Indian operations about 30 years ago. When it entered the Indian market, it was an organization which dealt only with international marketing. Later on, it expanded its Indian operations and moved into the manufacturing sector as well.
As part of its initial operations, it was highly dependent on expatriates for taking over strategic operations and expansion. However, after an internal audit during the 1990s, it was suggested that Nautek should develop a talent pool comprising of local talent as it would help Nautek have people with better understanding of the Indian business context along with saving up the cost of having expatriates who can have various issues with adjustment in the organization in India.
Currently, Nautek has 14 operations in India. During the past 20 years when it started recruiting for developing the local talent pool, it had candidates from the best of the institutes in India – both from Engineering and Management colleges. Its probation and training programs for young joiners made it one of the most sought after organizations for placements. Multiple institutes vouched for having Nautek at their campus for placement. Nautek also provided the best career growth opportunities as large number of talented employees who remained with the organization made it to the top level of the organization. Since its initial days, Nautek was known for experimenting with new HR policies, which were employee oriented and helped them in long term growth leading them to win multiple awards for best HR practices in the last few years..............
Mayur Ranjan’s Background
Mayur Ranjan (Mayur) belonged to Uttar Pradesh and was from a middle-class family. Both his parents were government servants and he was always made to focus on studies. His initial education was from a national level board. He was a competitive student since his school days and had won multiple Olympiads along with being a national ranker.
Educational Background
Mayur completed his engineering degree from one of the most prestigious institutes from Central India, where he got the best student award. After completing his graduation, he joined a Public Sector Unit in the coal industry, where he worked for 3 years. He left his job to pursue management education from one of the prominent business schools located in Western India...........
Mayur’ Association with Nautek
Mayur made it to Nautek’s scholarship program which allowed the scholarship recipients to intern with the firm and also made them eligible for the pre-placement offer from the company. Mayer worked on an expansion strategy for one of the consulting segments of Nautek’s clients which was well appreciated by the client. He later on took the pre-placement offer from the company.............
Mayur’s Working Style and Characteristics
Mayur was known to be a hard-task-master and was known to deliver the quality and on time. He had an excellent command over business operations and it’s daily functionings which made him one of the most feared persons to talk to when unprepared. He was also known to be a perfectionist and mistakes by others were not entertained by him............
Mayur’s Department
Mayur was heading Nautek’s business expansion segment. He headed a team of more than 50 members at the company’s Headquarters in Mumbai. Mayur’s department was regularly rated high on deliverables and achieving the KRAs (Key Response Areas) even during business downturns. The department was considered the breeding ground for talent, and it had given multiple talented employees a headway into various business operations of the organization...........
360-Degree Feedback: The Process (Exhibit I)
360-degree feedback is one of the most popular performance appraisal tools these days. It is a tool that is in operation in all Fortune 500 organizations, generally along with Forced Distribution method. 360-degree feedback is defined as the “The systematic collection and feedback of performance data on the individual or group derived from a number of stakeholders in their performance. The technique measures in detail the behaviors and competencies shown by the individual or group in achieving goals..............
360-Degree Feedback: Leadership Development Program at Nautek
Nautek’s HR department was one of the best in India, and it had several innovative practices targeting employee development. It was one of the first few firms to have human capital management calculated and it also started using competency mapping for recruitments rather than going for the standard KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude) levels of competency............
Anirudh and Mayur’s Interaction
Anirudh was given the responsibility of briefing Mayur regarding the 360-degree feedback process and asking for his participation for the same. Anirudh knew that it was not the right time to meet Mayur, as just the previous week the two had had an argument on the reason behind so many people leaving his department. Secondly, Mayur’s request to get an internal recruitment for a new team did not get a very favorable response and one of his peers had told him that many people did not want to join his team because of Mayur’s infamous short temper and his non-receptiveness to feedback..............
Going to the Program
Anirudh was aware that if Mayur was told that the CEO had questioned his decision of not attending the program, Mayur would relent a bit, at least to be in the good books of the boss. However, on a second thought, he asked the consultant, Professor Ramakaran (Ramakaran) to talk to Mayur directly so that he could ask questions as he wished. Ramakaran had taught Mayur in one of his courses so Mayur was likely to be more comfortable with him..............
Feedback
The feedback form had two sections, one section included closed-ended questions where the respondent had to answer certain questions which dealt with ability of person in
1) Leadership positions
2) Team members
3) Quality consciousness
4) ...........
Mayur’s Reactions
Mayur was not very happy on the first day as he thought it was more of a vertical session. He said to Ramakaran, “Sir, when do we look at the practical part.” The second day came as a shock for him as he got the first feedback. He took the report and said that it was not a fair process and that is why he never agreed to participate. His report (Exhibit II) had following main aspects:..................
Mayur’s Interaction with Ramakaran
Mayur then talked to Ramakaran regarding the feedback. He argued that when he is a good performer then why did he receive such a feedback? Ramakaran told Mayur that he had received this kind of reaction as quite often, many people are so focused on performance that they forget that there is a human side of the organization and it’s the people who perform and not machines. Ramakaran told him that he needs to be people-orientated, which will help him grow further in organization...............
6 Months after 360-degree Feedback
Mayur went back to his organization, and things did not change drastically on day one itself. Anirudh met Ramakaran after few months who enquired about Mayur. Anirudh told him that things were moving in positive direction – people had started saying that now he smiles sometimes. He called his entire department for a dinner meeting and also met them during lunch time as and when possible. Sometimes he moved out of his office and interacted with the team members in their cubicles...............
Assignment Questions
I. What is 360-degree feedback or multi-rater feedback?
II. Why is 360-degree feedback one of the most popular tools in today’s corporate culture for performance development?
III. What are the various myths associated with the feedback process?
IV. ....................
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Process of 360-degree Feedback
Exhibit II: Mayur's 360-Degree Feedback