Between- industry comparison 177 Does 360-degree feedback work in different industries? A between-industry comparison of the reliability and validity of multi-source performance ratings Stéphane Brutus Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, John W. Fleenor Mediaappraise Corp., Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, and Manuel London State University of New York at Stoney Brook, Stoney Brook, New York State, USA The value of multi-source performance ratings stems from the concept that the job of manager has become so complex that different constituencies (subordinates, peers, and supervisor) may legitimately view the same manager’s performance differently. As a consequence, managers need input from different sources to understand the effects of their behavior, guide their development, and improve their performance (Tornow, 1993). Multi-source ratings (alternatively called 360-degree feedback) have been used widely as a means of giving managers developmental feedback about their performance from different perspectives. Increasingly, organizations are using multi-source ratings to make personnel decisions about people (London and Smither, 1995). Considerable attention has been given to studying agreement between self and other ratings, because there seems to be a positive relationship between agreement and effective managerial performance (cf. Atwater and Yammarino, 1992; Bass and Yammarino, 1991; McCall and Lombardo, 1983; Van Velsor et al. , 1993; Yammarino and Atwater, 1993). The tendency to rate oneself higher, lower, or in-agreement with other constituencies has been shown to be influenced by demographic and personality characteristics (Brutus et al. , 1996; Wohlers et al., 1993). Studies of multi-source ratings usually focus on a particular sample within one organization and do not consider the possibility of systematic differences Journal of Management Development, Vol. 17 No. 3, 1998, pp. 177-190, © MCB University Press, 0262-1711 The authors thank Cynthia McCauley for her comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Stéphane Brutus, Concordia University, Department of Management, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Reprints of the study may be obtained from Manuel London, Harriman School, SUNY-Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3775, USA.