As a practitioner in this field for over  years and editorauthor of The Handbook of MultiSource Feedback I strongly disagree with the statement that  cannot succeed as a tool for decision making Many organizations have and continue to use  for decision making including not only appraisal but also succession planning high potential selectiondevelopment staffing and leadership development The fact is that  data generated under the right conditions including things like rater training provides information that is more valid and fair than that created by traditional sources ie supervisor evaluations Yes it can be misused and abused which is true for any toolprocess And it is difficult to do well and to sustain it But it is overly dogmatic to dismiss it as useful only for development In fact purely development only systems are quite rare and are in my experience not worth the investment  David W Bracken PhD