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Abstract This article examines 360 degree feedback as both an intervention and an evaluation technique for assessing management learning. An evaluation model is described which was created to distinguish the effects of different interventions for different stakeholders. This is illustrated by reference to management development programmes for 500 managers conducted over three years in a large UK public authority. The article concludes with an analysis of the use of 360 degree feedback in its dual role of evaluation data source and intervention for development. Key Words: 360 degree feedback; evaluating management development; evaluation models
A characteristic of human resource management in recent years has been the attention given to policies and techniques designed to produce performance improvements. Management development activities have been increasing (Thomson et al., 1998) and 360 degree feedback systems, often as an aspect of a development process, have become widespread (London and Smither, 1995). There is evidence that human resources (HR) strategy, the quality of management development and the policy infrastructure around career management and feedback improve leadership capability and consequently affect organizational performance (Mabey and Martin, 2001).
Given that there is an established relationship between management development and organization development, the evaluation of management development interventions is of great importance in the management of change. Although 360 degree feedback mechanisms are systems often designed by senior management expressly to improve performance, they are also techniques by which development processes can be evaluated. In this article we examine 360 degree feedback as an evaluation technique, and seek to establish how 360 degree data, feedback processes and systems can be integrated into other sources of evaluation in order to overcome the potential difficulties inherent in the evaluation of management development.
There are many problems in evaluating those management development activities that are aimed at changing organizations by changing management behaviour. Organization strategies are often emergent, ambiguous and not precisely articulated, so there may be no clear aims or objectives for the management development programme (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985; Bailey and Johnson, 1992). Organizational complexity, size, changing employee roles and multi-layered structures make simplistic evaluation impossible. Management development activities may range from formal programmes, seminars and 'workshops' to coaching, mentoring, e-learning and various types of on the job development such as delegation, project...