On the train today, I read an interesting article in The Guardian which discussed whether you could trust your manager.  I turned to thinking about how this rather fundamental question affected 360 degree appraisals.

The obvious response is "this is why we need anonymity in 360s".  But, I actually see it quite differently.  If you do not trust your manager then anonymity is but a side issue.  You are not going to trust their response to your own 360 and you are not going to trust them to not run a "who said that" campaign on any comments you have provided on their 360.

Although most of our clients do take a 'responses are anonymous' approach to 360 I believe that the people completing 360s have more knowledge and understanding of the culture of their organisation and the approach their manager will take.  An enlightened manager will get good, constructive feedback and an authoritarian, untrustworthy manager will get guarded feedback and the degree of anonymity offered by any 360 degree appraisal system will only affect the openness of the feedback at the margins. 

Brendan