Do you know more about it? I am building a company and want to avoid the "kiss up" effect when I only get heavily filtered/biased info from subordinates that are afraid of being presented in bad light, and team up together to "adjust" facts, discarding innocent people in the process.

Alas I don't know the internals of it, I'm as far from the HR department as it can be. But here's what I've noticed:

- regular performance feedback, not only from the bosses, but from the peers as well. First, it gives you a good understanding of internal connections and relations. Second, it makes much harder for some bad mid-level boss to say "this guy has always been a loser": it had to be backed up by the historical evidence.

- internal mobility is explicitly encouraged. Bosses know that having a one of your guys in another department improves your communication network and makes dealing with that department much easier.