A Day in the Life of Alex Sander

By GROUP 5 Prajna Alva (13728) Pranesh Guptha (13729) Prerna Saluja (13730) PushyamiAnupindi (13731) Raghavendra Shyam (13732) Rahul RM (13733) Rohitha Chowdary (13734)

Problem Statement
How should Landon effectively implement the 360 degree feedback system such that high performers like Alex Sander realize their potential?

External Analysis
Political There are no political factors at play in the case.

Economic There is stiff competition among products in the beauty industry. This is why AvantGarde had allocated $25 million to fast track Alexs project.

Social There are no social factors at play in the case.

Technological The 360 degree feedback system is a product of technological advancement in HRMT systems. Is it so? Reconsider.

Cultural There are instances where teams from different countries such as France, Japan etc work on the project. This diversity would result in cultural issues in the organization. Landon is an American firm that was taken over by a European company. This would certainly result in cultural differences.

Legal There are no legal factors at play in the case.

Internal Analysis
SWOT Analysis of 360 degree system: Strengths Weaknesses Provides a holistic review of the It is more expensive and time candidate as it takes into account consuming to conduct as compared to feedback from different traditional assessment tools. organizational levels. As it is being tried for the first time at A candidate can compare and contrast Landon, there may be problems

his/her performance with the peer group as they are involved in the process

during implementation.

If the candidate is perceived negatively by peers, they may provide a biased feedback resulting in flawed results. The system is vulnerable to the Group Shift and Group Think phenomena.

Opportunities Threats If implemented correctly, it can If not implemented correctly, it would provide significant advantage to be detrimental to the company Landon in identifying high resulting in Financial and Human performers. Resource losses. It can be used by candidates to plan specific paths toward their development.

Some employees had desisted from providing feedback and comments. This would skew the final results.

SWOT Analysis of Alex Sander Strengths Weakness Technically competent with a varied Task master. Expects same level of skill set. commitment from others. Extensive product knowledge. and market Limited patience. Arrogant.

Decisive and Multi-tasker. Confident.

Does not involve others in decision making.

Opportunities Threats Alex can be promoted through the Alex may not be able to achieve ranks very quickly if people-skills are work-personal life balance. improved. The consistently high pace of work may result in burn out. Alex can serve as a mentor to others thereby raising team performance.

SWOT of 360 which is the most crucial has been handled poorly. Many factors will not emerge if you do it that way. Factors
Effective implementation Employee concerns w.r.t. validity of the 360 degree system Fairness of the system Cost and time factors Biased and conflicting opinions in the feedback. Alexs approach to workplace and co-workers. Employees (especially Alexs) future career paths would be based on the outcome of the feedback.

Critical Factors
Implementation of 360 degree feedback system: Landon would definitely face issues during implementation. Some employees, including Alex have reservations about this system as they doubt its validity and fairness. It is vital that Landon approaches this correctly as any discrepancies may trigger ill-will and hostility among the employees. Not clear. It is too broad a factor to analyze

Employee concerns regarding Validity of the system: It is important that the employees perceive the system in a favourable manner. Being an all-round review, it must result in a consistent feedback. If there are too many inconsistencies, the integrity and validity of the system would be in question. Alexs approach to work/career: It is known that despite being a high performer in many respects, Alex is viewed negatively by some colleagues. The 360 degree feedback can either change Alexs approach or compel Alex to leave the organization. Poor analysis of critical factors and incomplete coverage

Options
1. Continue with 360 degree system despite employee concerns Pros: 1. Faster implementation

Cons: 1. Employee dissatisfaction 2. Decision making at the senior management level would be affected 2. Modify the system to address employee concerns: Modifications suggested include involving only team members of the candidate and identifying specific criteria against which the candidate would be evaluated. Pros: 1. Addresses concerns about validity and fairness 2. Valid feedback can be used to motivate high performers like Alex Cons: 1.Time consuming 2. Would result in higher costs 3. Revert to the traditional feedback system Pros: 1.Would restore status-quo in the organization 2. Evaluation is faster as it is a tried and tested technique Cons: 1. Would result in cost overruns 2. Portrays the management as being indecisive. 3. Despite method being faster overall time taken would increase due to restart of process.

Recommendations:
We feel that options 1 and 3 are extreme, in the sense that they affect employees in a profound way. Option 1 also would result in financial and HR losses described earlier. Option 3 is also ruled out as it shows that management does not have faith in its own decisions. Option 2 is the best alternative as it is progressive and at the same time addresses employee concerns. Moreover, it may result in employees like Alex making small but significant changes to their approach leading to increased morale and productivity.