360⁰ Product - the software instrument which manages the surveys: either a generic version (eg: 'Basic 360⁰') or a customisable option where clients may specify their own content.
Administrator - any individual who is authorised to manage the process
Administrator Options - choice of how the survey process is managed (eg: by the Company on behalf of a client or client company; by an employee of a consulting company using the tool with a third party client or client company; by an employee of a client company using the tool on behalf of other employees within the company; by an employee or individual client using the tool for their own development)
Assessor - any individual who is analysing the 'target' from an external viewpoint (eg: boss; peer; colleague; reporting staff member; customer; family member; friend)
Client - the 'end user' organisation or individual who is purchasing uses of the 360⁰ Product
Control Panel - the interface or platform through which the administrator manages the survey process and all product interactions
Database - the central store of competences and related generic items used to populate the range of survey products, subject levels and professional specialisms. This will be supplied by the Company and structured according to:
Skill Categories - overall 'high level' competency groupings corresponding with the 9 domains of the Psychologica model (eg: intellectual; managerial; functional; adaptive; team focused; interpersonal; value focused; motivational; visionary)
Skill Dimensions - principal factors within each category arrayed according to 3 styles of behaviour or skill (active, reactive and interactive)
Skill Area, Competence or Competency - the specific defined description of skill, behaviour, or ability, to which any survey item relates. These remain consistent regardless of the type of survey used - variation being within the wording of the relative survey item
Skill Item or Competency Item - Although each skill has only one definition, there may be a number of differently worded skill items which could relate to it and maybe selected within surveys
Item - any question in a survey worded according to: Target as Respondent (eg: I am........; I do......... etc); Assessor as Respondent (eg: xxxx is......; xxxx does ......... etc)
Item scale - the measurement scale against which each item is assessed (eg: low = 1, high = 7)
Level - choice of generic or customised item from ranges defined according to the responsibility level of the subject's role: Leader - director, owner-manager > senior manager; Manager - senior manager > middle manager > junior manager, Supervisor - junior manager > team leader; Operator - any job-holder performing a defined function; Generic - applicable to all subjects
Open-ended items - Generic or customisable free response questions which allow attitudes and qualitative data to be collected (eg: what would you like xxxx to do more of/ less of?)
Project - the administrator may manage a number of separate projects concurrently (eg: groups of 360⁰ Analyses for different departments; other products yet to be specified - such as customer or staff surveys)
Psychologica Model or System © - a number of integrated psychological models which are the intellectual property of the Company and which allow different diagnostic tools, and intervention approaches, to be related across a common competency framework using 'predictor : criteria matching' (where the diagnostic survey is the predictor and the desired behavioural outcome is the criterion)
Report - the final output document which relates to any survey. In the case of the 360⁰ Product this will show and compare averaged scores for 'target', 'other', 'boss' 'staff' etc regarding each skill category, skill dimension in graphical format, with fixed text explanations - based on the Psychologica Model ©. This may include appended data such as numerical frequency scores, benchmark comparisons, project averages and score ranges, individual item scores, etc.
Respondent - anyone responding to a survey: the 'target' (analysing self from an internal viewpoint) or an assessor
Survey - sometimes referred to as 'questionnaire'. In this case any 360⁰ tool, in generic (see below) or customised formats (ie: as defined by the administrator) or other questionnaire based product (eg: customer survey; staff survey; job analysis; staff selection; etc)
'Target' or 'Focus' - the individual who is being analysed (eg: company employee; coaching client; private individual)
Workbooks - supporting literature supplied by the Company and accessed by subject and/or administrator through a linked 'resources' pages