The Development of Management and Leadership Capability and its ...

Unreliability of 360º feedback
The study looked at 104 managers in an organisation and their managerial
competence ratings as assessed by self, bosses, and subordinates. Over the period of
the developmental feedback programme (two years) significant increases in
competence were perceived both by managers themselves and by their subordinates.
(Bosses also reported Increases but these were small and not statistically significant.)
However, further statistical analysis showed that managers’ improved selfassessments
were not related to having undergone the 360º feedback but to other
factors. The research indicates that neither manager’s own improved self-assessment
nor those from subordinates can be shown to be due to real improvements in
competence. (Bailey and Fletcher 2002)
While other studies referred to in this report come to more optimistic conclusions about the
effectiveness of 360º feedback (Horne and Stedman Jones 2001, McEvoy and Beatty 1989,
Bass et al 1996, Hazucha et al 1993, Fletcher and Baldry 1999, McCauley and Lombardo,
1990 Siefert et al 2001, Mabey (2001 ) this suggests that this conclusion needs to be taken
with some caution. The best overall conclusion is that 360º feedback can have beneficial
effects it cannot be assumed that it always does and in all circumstances. Whether it does or
not should be taken to depend on features of the situation (Mauer et al 2002) in which it is
used, details of the methodology with which it is applied and the extent of performance gain
to be had – with already highly capable managers there will be less scope for improvement.
Similarly, a study by Guest et al (2000) found that HR professionals and CEOs did not agree
either about the effectiveness of HR practices or about how well the organisation was
performing financially. These results cast doubt upon studies which rely on asking one or
two people in the organisation about the effectiveness of management development or its
influence on performance. Research is urgently needed to provide better measures and which
can give more reliable results.
A recent report from the Kellogg Foundation (see box) confirmed this view, indicating that
while learning outcomes were often measured, data about impact at behavioural and
organisational level were unavailable.
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