The role of upward feedback in effective Federal public administration in Germany - as part of the new public management and modernisation strategy

Recently, private and public organisations have been using upward feedback to meet new challenges in human resource management in public administration. Most of the discussions dealing with the accurate use of ‘modern instruments’ like upward feedback for the management development process can be found outside Germany. Upward feedback focuses on managerial development rather than having a judgemental purpose.

This paper addresses literature research dealing with upward feedback, which suggests that upward feedback can lead to performance improvement. Most research studies discuss the use of this instrument in private companies or in local public agencies. There is almost nothing in the literature about whether upward feedback is used at the federal administrative level in Germany. Consequently, this the paper examines whether the instrument of upward feedback is really used rarely at the federal administrative level in Germany. To analyse whether the instrument of upward feedback is used at the federal administrative level in Germany the researcher designed a questionnaire, which was sent to all 15 supreme federal authorities (the Federal Chancellery and the fourteen Federal Ministries) and to 54 subordinate federal administrations along with information regarding the purpose of the research. Information from 69 respondents shows that 16 % of federal authorities are already using the instrument on a regular basis, one for ten years and another for eight years. Some 22 % are planning implementation in the near future and two of these have already undertaken a pilot project with good results.

The paper identifies salient concepts, in the field of upward feedback, which are currently being employed in the private and the public sector. No ideal approach can be found in either the literature or in practice. However, one fundamental conclusion was identified: it is not enough simply to receive feedback. An organisation has to take further aspects into account, for example to define and communicate the purposes of the feedback before starting the feedback programme, to help employees to interpret and react to the ratings and to set up rules on how managers are to deal with the results etc. If this is done, the instrument can be a powerful tool for managerial developmental purposes.