The governing of the self/the self-governing self: Multi-rater/source feedback and practices 1940–2011

Abstract

Rory Slater is a PhD candidate in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey. His PhD involves a three-part qualitative analysis that seeks critically to consider the post-capitalist democratisation of the workplace and the complicit involvement of psychological knowledge and expertise in contemporary programmes of government at work. Adrian Coyle is Senior Lecturer and Course Director for the MSc in Social Psychology in theSchool of Psychology at the University of Surrey. His research and publications have addressed a range of topics, principally psychological issues in religion and spirituality, identity, bereavement and sexuality. The vast majority of his research is qualitative, employing a range of methods. With Evanthia Lyons, he was editor of Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology (Sage, 2007). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe wish to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of our late colleague, Lynne Millward, to this work. As a Social and Occupational Psychologist at the University of Surrey, Lynne ensured the work was contextually informed and provided much encouragement. We would also like to express our gratitude to Peter Hegarty of the University of Surrey's School of Psychology for helping us to develop the ideas presented in this paper. Finally we wish to offer sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers of the paper for their constructive input which has contributed greatly to the refinement of our ideas: their responses to our work allowed us to experience the academic review process at its best.The full reference for the published version of this article is: Slater, R., & Coyle, A. (2014). The governing of the self/the self-governing self: Multirater/source feedback and practices 1940-2011, 233-255. DOI: 10.1177/0959354313520087Page 2 of 37The governing of the self/the self-governing self: Multi-rater/source feedback and practices 1940-2011 AbstractThe present paper argues for a more critical contextualisation of multi-rater/source feedback mechanisms applying Foucault's conceptual template of technologies of objectification and subjectivity/self, as they relate to a mode of "self" government that is intricately entwined with psychological knowledge and expertise. An in-depth genealogical analysis is presented that traces the genesis of two prominent forms of multi-rater/source feedback mechanisms between 1940 and 2011: the educational innovation of the T-group and the contemporary human resource practice of 360-degree feedback. We conclude that such practices have functioned to enfold individuals within relations of power and signification that impact upon individual selfgovernance, subjectivity, and identity. As such, the application of 360-degree feedback within contemporary organisational models is emblematic of a programme of government that relies for its effectiveness on the self-regulatory and self-developing capacities of the individual at work. Key words360-degree feedback; psychologised-self; self-government; subjectivity; T-groups Page 3 of 37 Current organisational thought holds that ...

The Leadership Arena–Reputation–Identity (LARI) model: Distinguishing shared and unique perspectives in multisource leadership ratings.

“…Multisource leadership assessments continue to be a popular method for obtaining a well-rounded analysis of leaders’ strengths and weaknesses (e.g., Day et al, 2014; Slater & Coyle, 2014). In spite of the obvious advantages that multisource perspectives have to offer in terms of describing and understanding a focal leader, important questions remain as to the existence and the magnitude of the various source effects in traditional 360s (i.e., self, superiors, peers, subordinates).…”

“…In addition, it allows tapping leaders’ levels of self-awareness regarding their leadership behaviors and capabilities, which has also been linked to important performance outcomes (Atwater & Yammarino, 1992; Fleenor et al, 2010). Because of these reasons, multisource rating procedures and their feedback programs, often referred to as 360s, are widely used in leadership assessments across the globe (Slater & Coyle, 2014).…”

The Leadership Arena-Reputation-Identity (LARI) Model: Distinguishing shared and unique perspectives in multisource leadership ratings

“…Multisource leadership assessments continue to be a popular method for obtaining a wellrounded analysis of leaders' strengths and weaknesses (e.g., Day et al, 2014;Slater & Coyle, 2014). In spite of the obvious advantages that multisource perspectives have to offer in terms of describing and understanding a focal leader, important questions remain as to the existence and the magnitude of the various source effects in traditional 360s (i.e., self, superiors, peers, subordinates).…”

Time, space, power, and the liminal transformation of the psychologised “self ”

“…More specifically, it rendered both the object and subject of psychological illness ('the ill' themselves) as displaced, mobile and assuming multiple perspectival planes simultaneously as it was the responsibility of the therapeutic communitas for members to observe and reflect upon their own neuroticism. Here, as with other liminal events, the usual social and institutional order was suspended only to be reordered or restructured in a new, alternative way -a way that interpolated each patient into a kind of inverted panoptic technology (Slater & Coyle, 2014) whereby they became simultaneously and somewhat paradoxically both the object and subject of 'psychological illness'.…”

“…Rose's genealogy is inspired in large measure by Foucault's concept of governmentality as his investigation of "teleologies" sought to assess critically how the psy-disciplines have become complicit in contemporary programmes of liberal government. More recently, we have applied Foucault's conceptual template of technologies of objectification and subjectivity/self as they relate to the deformation and reformation of selfhood and subjectivity within the context of multi-rater/source feedback (Slater & Coyle, 2014). We offered a detailed genealogy of two prominent forms of multirater/source feedback mechanisms and practices (the educational innovation of the T-group and the contemporary human resource practice of 360-degree feedback), concluding that such 9 practices have functioned to enfold individuals within relations of power and signification that impact upon individual self-governance, subjectivity and identity.…”