In-basket Technique | Meaning and Definition

What is the meaning of In-basket technique?

An in-basket technique, commonly called an In-basket exercise, in terms of business or government terminology, represents the hiring or promotion of the employees in the organization. This strategy works in such a way that it keeps the concerns or issues in an in-basket and makes the employees familiarize themselves with these issues or concerns in their work environment.

These issues which are placed in the in-basket technique must be examined by the employees including getting feedback from other employees and communicating with them. Once these issues or concerns get solved, the employees will transfer these issues to the “out-basket.”

The In-basket technique procedure:

In the in-basket technique, the trainee is provided with certain details regarding the tasks that have to be performed, such as description, responsibilities, etc. Now to the trainee, a log of materials will be provided that form an in-basket, and they are given a certain time frame to respond to the particular log of materials.

Once completing the in-basket, the trainer conducts a discussion meeting with the trainees. The trainees have to provide justifications for the decisions taken by them, and the trainer, by hearing out the justifications for the decisions, will provide suitable feedback for the trainees.

In this way, the trainees will be provided with multiple in-baskets with a certain organized set of information. The trainees need to communicate with each other to make better decisions.

A scoring system can be included in this procedure. For example, “5” can be given for good answers, and “1” can be given for poor ones.