Reverse employee performance review is an appraisal technique where subordinates evaluate the effectiveness of their managers over a predetermined period. In other words, it is a bottom-up evaluation method where an employee is called to assess a manager’s ability to professionally perform in an organization ( Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013). The performance review tool measures a senior executive’s capability to meet goals. A reverse performance review evaluates a supervisor’s behavior and efficiency by employees. The method has the primary intent of providing anonymous and voluntary feedback to senior staff regarding their performance. During the actual assessment, the reverse performance review method requires employees not to be overly critical but give honest and constructive comments in an objective and professional manner. Evaluated managers/supervisors are also not supposed to retaliate against employees for any information that they find negative. Organizations that have adopted reverse performance reviews set rules on how the appraisal will be conducted and what metrics will be measured ( Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013). Reverse employee perfomance review has its cons and pros regarding ability of the appraisal technique to improve a supervisor’s performance or the likelihood of having negative effects. First, reverse performance review is an excellent technique in getting feedback from leaders. The method is a non-traditional type of assessment that has the capability of generating actionable, ongoing and well-rounded feedback within a short span from the people a supervisor spends time with. Additionally, the technique is crucial in building a support group. The method targets a group of people which a supervisor interact with on a regular basis. The targeted employees offer an ongoing and objective feedback that highlights strengths and areas of weaknesses in a supervisor ultimately enabling the manager to improve. The method is vital in letting a leader know what he or she should keep doing, what he should start doing and what the supervisor should stop doing ( Ali, Mahdi & Malihe, 2012). The questions asked in a reverse review technique produce valuable feedback. The method gives frequent and consistent piece of feedback thereby enabling the leader to strongly and imperatively work on it. The review method produces a positive effect by enabling a supervisor to commit to a course of action. Upon receiving feedback form employees, the manager has the latitude to implement what is useful and leave the bits that would not be meaningful ( Khanna & Sharma, 2014) . It gives leaders a clearly defined end goal and articulated success metric for each feedback point. The reverse performance review method enables employee to hold their supervisors accountable. The employees expect the supervisors to act on the developmental points highlighted within a predetermined period. The method therefore produces a positive effect in improving the supervisor’s weakness areas such as leadership style and attitude. The method results in behavior change and creates a significant impact on teams and the entire organizations. The review uses specific guidelines established to conduct reverse evaluation, which leads to accurate feedback from employees on how a supervisor is performing regarding whether the manager listens to employee concerns and if the supervisor accepts accountability ( Ali et al., 2012) . The feedback acts as a drive towards improving the leadership and managerial style in the workplace. The appraisal technique gives employees an opportunity to discuss results of the subordinate evaluations with each of the managers. The review identifies areas of strengths and weaknesses which pressures the managers to set goals to improve performance in key areas. The evaluation technique gives managers an opportunity to fix the system. According to Aggarwal and Thakur (2013), reverse performance reviews takes a step back to evaluate the environment in which the employees work. The review reveals problems with the world the employees work in which is a positive effect. The review method is crucial in revealing patterns of dysfunctional and systemic issues that require urgent attention. The evaluation generates lots of data from the junior employees which reveals positive patterns on areas a supervisor is doing well and should continue to do. Reverse performance review produces a positive effect by measuring a manager’s success. The data gives a baseline against which a supervisor can measure leadership qualities. In case employees complaint about the manager, the supervisor would be persuaded to seek a training coach or attend leadership training sessions. The end result would be a transformed leader who has adopted a new and friendlier leadership style to the employees. The reverse appraisal technique gives employees a chance to vent. The review method acts as an outlet through which subordinate staff can express concerns or satisfaction with the supervisor/manager ( Aggarwal & Thakur, 2013) . The method provides a platform for a positive reaction achieved through listening and addressing employee’s issues. Reverse performance review leads to a positive effect through improved employer branding. Once the issues expressed on the evaluation forms are addressed, the employees feel valued and listened. Change of leadership style makes employee feel that their opinions matter. Giving performance review to the supervisors leads to positive effects through the improvement of perfomance and development of the manager’s potential. The method coerces the executives to take corrective measures on areas where employees point out similar concerns. The reverse performance review technique has its negative side as in some instances it would be difficult to criticize a supervisor since it would result to undesirable effects. Negative evaluation is likely to lead to a demotion or missing of an opportunity for promotion. A supervisor who is evaluated negatively may resort to making an employee’s working environment unfavorable in an attempt to have the staff dismissed from the organization. The manager is likely to give an unfair and unequal treatment to the employee for having been evaluated negatively (Aggarwal & Thakur, 2013). The reverse performance review may likely result to adverse personal actions against an employee. The method may result to a negative effect in case a worker’s salary increase is jeopardized. Reverse performance review is prone to natural bias among the junior evaluators. The technique would result to rater errors in case the subordinate employee adopts a subjective style in evaluating the supervisor. This would defeat the primary objective of carrying out the evaluation. In such an instance, no improvement would be realized leading to continued inefficiencies in a supervisor’s leadership style. Additional negative effects of the appraisal method is the possibility of disgruntled subordinates to give vengeful reviews. The reverse performance review method is likely to raise ethical concerns in case it is made in an inappropriate way thereby making the process harmful rather than useful. Comparing and contrasting supervisors in the reverse method is termed unethical. Making statements and expressions that are offensive while referring to manager would be unethical. According to Misiak (2010), it is also unethical for supervisors to disclose the identity of employees who evaluated them negatively. The ethical principles of performance appraisal place emphasis on maintaining the evaluator’s names confidential. The reverse appraisal system ought to adhere to the ethical principles of openness, confidentiality, universality, regularity and usefulness ( Misiak, 2010) . Betraying the tenets may make a supervisor feel that he or she has been appraised unfairly which would make the process unethical. Cognitive bias and lack of objectivism would make the reverse performance review unethical.
References
Aggarwal, A., & Thakur, G. S. M. (2013). Techniques of performance appraisal-a review. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT), 2 (3), 617-621.
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Ali, S. B., Mahdi, A., & Malihe, J. (2012). The effect of employees' performance appraisal procedure on their intrinsic motivation. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2 (12), 161.
Bernardin, H. J., & Wiatrowski, M. (2013). Performance appraisal. Psychology and Policing, 257.
Khanna, M., & Sharma, R. K. (2014). Employee’s performance appraisal and its techniques: a review. Asian Journal of Advanced Basic Sciences, 2 (2), 51-58.
Misiak, S. (2010). Ethical System for Employee Performance Appraisal in Practice. Economics & Sociology, 3 (2), 101-113.
