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Shouldn't We Evaluate Our Bosses?

5/29/2014

2 Comments

 
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In my university professors give students grades at the end of the semester.  No surprise there, right? Students also give mid-semester feedback and end-of-the-semester feedback scores and comments to their professors.  These scores impact our career as they can be used to justify whether we are offered a new contract or not.  Department heads use student feedback scores and other quantitative measurements such as how many students register for our classes and average class GPA to determine whether or not we should keep our jobs.

Let's add this up.  Teachers evaluate students (grades), students evaluate teachers (student feedback surveys), management evaluates teachers (stats), but when do teachers evaluate their bosses?  I'm still waiting for someone to ask what I think about the job my bosses are doing.  I'm not sure if no one simply cares or they are afraid of the answers and what they might mean.

Currently, there is no survey to ascertain how my bosses are doing.  If there was such a survey, what should be asked?  Here are some sample question ideas:

1. What has your boss/director/department head done in the past year to help you do your job better/more effectively including training, access to resources, or professional development opportunities?

2. How has your boss/director/department head motivated you to do more than the minimum requirements in your department?

3. How does your boss/director/department head congratulate you or show appreciation when you do a good job?

4. How does your boss/director/department head handle disagreements with faculty members?

5. How well does your boss/director/department head communicate with faculty members regarding departmental issues?  Is your input asked for?  If so, do you feel is it valued?

6. How satisfied are you with the level of communication with your boss/director/department head?

What do you think?  Should questions only be asked that can be answered with Likert scale responses?  Do you trust the policy makers in your school to read your written-out responses?  Do you think a boss/director/department head would actually lose their position if they received poor feedback?  Is it all just a waste of time?





2 Comments
scott redfern
5/30/2014 03:41:43 pm

I’d rather not say who said it, but one philosopher once said,” Evaluation is creation…Evaluating is itself the most valuable treasure of all that we value. It is only through evaluation that value exists.”
Pretty grand! But really, most of the evaluations that I’ve seen over the years have been pretty trivial and don’t lead to much of anything. I get your point---and your 6 points would surely give the (your) current leadership low points.
But let’s face it: leadership??? Unless the evaluation can lead to a greater value, I’m not sure where you’re going with this? I understand the frustration. However, the real question might be: how can I make an evaluation of my boss really mean something? How???


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mikecorea link
6/2/2014 10:08:14 am

This is a really interesting post, thank you.

It got me thinking about a few things. The first is sort of related to the roles of "management" at the college level. I honestly wouldn't have much to say to the management in the college I work in because there is not much interaction or overlap nor do too many decisions seem to impact my teaching. I might be missing something though!

I am thinking of when I worked in places with more staff and more for the management to do. I think there was a lot of room for feedback and I am not sure how well it would have been received but I also think sharing what the staff was thinking would have helped create a more harmonious and productive environment.

The other thought I has was that this sort of feedback does seem to happen in the business world. One example that came to mind was 360 degree feedback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360-degree_feedback . Is the language teaching (or English teaching? or just teaching?) world behind on things?

Anyway, I just saw this post and thought it was interesting.
http://isabelavillasboas.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/the-stages-of-receiving-feedback-as-a-leader/

Thanks for the interesting post!

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