Reflection Essay on Management

Obviously, the internet based appraisal system has more technical advantages than just providing instant relaying of information. On the part of the evaluators, which cover subordinates, customers and peers, the facility will be very accessible in terms of location and time factors. The internet today has been widely distributed in a sense that the smallest unit of its access point can be in a regular household. In a more specific target access, internet availability can also be initiated by most personal handheld electronics devices. (TechSoup, 2003).

Such factor can make it very simple for the evaluators to send their ratings for a certain person. Aside from accessibility, a company system based on the internet is also very secured. Large companies nowadays have their own investment schemes in protecting their own telecommunications facilities, including the internet. Since the appraisal performance ratings are very particular in terms of the accuracy and integrity of the outputs, software tools can be imbedded in any internet connection facility. This will somehow protect the data transmitted.

Otis may have also considered the aspect of non-response elements within the project. (Blackwell Synergy, 2001). Since the implementation of the technical facility is somehow deviant from the conventional ways of appraisal rating, it is possible that the company has experienced troubles in properly disseminating information that such facility is actually available. People in a corporate world may not be used to such internet based appraisal system which could cause a substantial number of employees who are unable to submit their actual ratings for a particular person. Just like in a normal case of surveying, non-response subjects will always be encountered.

Apparently, there is not much of a difference in terms of the “obsession” factor within the 360-degree performance rating against the conventional metric analysis which has long been used by human resource professionals. As a clear example, Otis’ own executives were partly responsible for the development of the ideal leadership profiles which the company aims to maintain for high productivity. In a sense, the internet just served as a medium or a tool in order to make the appraisal ratings process more advanced, more convenient and secure.

There is a notion that for every advances implemented in a certain system, there will always be room for improvement. In the case of the appraisal system based on the internet, what can be done to maximize the potential of such facility is to continuously monitor the process of implementation. In technical aspects, the domain company which hosts the system should be reliable enough to look for certain abnormalities, problems and concerns.

In the process of structuring the appraisal system, what the company intends to achieve is to improve its internal performance based on how the elements within it performs, in this case the managers and staff. Since the 360-degree system collects raw data, a statistical analysis can be done to see whether there is a relationship between the actual performance ratings of the employees and the overall productivity of the company. (Drazin, 1999).

References

Blackwell Synergy. 2001. Non Response in Survey Research. Retrieved November 11 2007 from http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.01117.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=jan.

Drazin, R. 1999. Wage Differences Between Men and Women: Performance Appraisal Ratings vs. Salary Allocation as the Locus of Bias. Retrieved November 11 2007 from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/113452241/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0.

TechSoup. 2003. Access the Internet with Handheld Devices. Retrieved November 11 2007 from http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=940.