TO WHAT EXTENT SELF-AWARENESS ON EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCIES DEPENDS ON OTHERS? A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF MULTISOURCE FEEDBACK

The assessment of Emotional and Social Competencies (ESCs) is becoming a diffused practice not only in the work environment for appraisal and development purposes, but also in those academic programs which aim to increase students’ awareness on their competencies and to build the required skills for their future professional career. The main purpose of this study is to examine multisource feedback ratings of the behavior and if there are specific categories of raters better to assess specific competencies. Despite the well acknowledged advantages of multirater approaches, research has recently highlighted some drawbacks related to the defensiveness mechanisms that lead individuals to ignore relevant information provided by others, the inconsistent patterns of feedback that may confuse rather than help individuals, and the inadequacy of some sources to assess specific behavioral competencies. We gathered data from graduates involved in 360-degree assessment of their competencies during the participation of ESCs learning programs. We compared the different perspectives (self-evaluation, personal and professional external raters) and we analyzed the ability of each group of external raters (family members, partners, friends, fellow students, professional contacts) to assess ESC through the observed behavior. Results provide methodological insights for improving the development and the administration of multi-rater feedback tools.