Checking In? A Dyadic and Dynamic Perspective on Feedback Conversations

Abstract

Companies are increasingly moving toward more fluidity and flexibility in performance management. The trend to “unstructure” feedback processes has led to a renewed interest for evidence-based guidelines on how to organize feedback in organizations differently. Unfortunately, there remains a dearth of knowledge on two fundamental properties of feedback processes as they are now being advanced in organizations. First, feedback is dyadic in that both employee and supervisor are active agents in a feedback exchange. Second, feedback is dynamic with feedback conversations being connected in time to previous and future conversations. Drawing on conceptual and methodological advances in studying dyadic and dynamic processes, we systematically address previously unexplored research areas and paint a more complete picture of how informal feedback exchanges in organizations unfold over time. In doing so, we bring together the feedback-seeking, feedback-giving, and feedback environment literatures to advance a dyadic and dynamic perspective on feedback processes in organizations.