Curvilinear Relationship between Constructive Feedback and Behavioral Outcomes via Felt Obligation

Abstract

Leader’s providing constructive feedback has been deemed a desirable behavior for preventing negative outcomes. Yet, previous studies found mixed effects suggesting a potential curvilinearity based on the extent of feedback. Grounded in social exchange theory and the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect, we proposed and tested a possibility of curvilinear relationships between constructive feedback citizenship behaviors and task performance, that are mediated by felt obligation. We further reasoned that the reciprocity norm between constructive feedback and felt obligation would be affected by followers’ interpretation of leader’s behavior. The current research used relational attributions and relational identification to test the moderating effect. To test our hypotheses, we conducted two studies. In Study 1, three-wave (10 days interval) data was collected from two construction companies from South Korea (N = 207) and the U.S. (N = 205). However, the results indicated that no significant effect was found in curvilinearity and moderating effect of relational attributions. In Study 2, we collected 10 days of three-wave (10 hours) data from a construction company from South Korea. 108 employees completed a total of 756 questionnaires. Although the curvilinearity was not found at the within-person level, we found the curvilinear relationship between constructive feedback and felt obligation at between-person level. Also the curvilinear associations between constructive feedback and OCB and task performance were mediated by felt obligation. While relational identification did not moderate the curvilinearity, relational attributions were found to neutralize the curvilinearity. The implications of our findings for both theory and practice were discussed.