The 360 That Backfired: Multisource Feedback Implementation at Meridian Bank
A bank rolled out 360 feedback to 120 managers. Participation was high. Two high performers have now resigned citing the process. What went wrong?
Duration
60 min
Difficulty
Beginner
Stakeholders
3
Company Size
Medium (100-500)
Organizational Background
Meridian Community Bank is a 600-employee regional bank with 18 branches. The VP of Leadership Development launched the 360 program using an off-the-shelf SaaS platform with no customization to the bank's leadership competencies. Raters were selected by the managers themselves, with no guidance on rater selection or rater frame-of-reference training. Feedback reports were distributed via email with no facilitated debrief. The platform's automated report included a bar chart comparing managers' self-ratings to rater averages with percentile rankings against the platform's normative database - a database drawn from Fortune 500 companies. Several managers received feedback they perceived as a personal attack. One manager has accused a peer of using the anonymous process to retaliate for a previous conflict. HR has no protocol for handling this.
Key Stakeholders
Learning Objectives
- Identify the psychometric and process design requirements for a valid and credible 360-degree feedback system
- Diagnose the specific design failures that produced harm in this implementation
- Understand rater frame-of-reference effects and their impact on 360 data quality
- Design a remediation plan that salvages stakeholder trust while improving technical rigor
- Apply ethical guidelines for multisource feedback use in development vs. evaluative contexts
Host a Team Session
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Instructor Monitoring
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