Abstract
Feedback seeking relates positively to organizational identification and task performance. However, an individual generally views seeking feedback as risky. It remains unclear whether, why, and when ethical leadership impacts on feedback-seeking behavior. This research aimed to explore the mediating role of psychological safety in the relationship between ethical leadership and nurses’ feedback seeking and to further explore the moderating effect of power distance in this mechanism. After eliminating invalid surveys, the sample included 458 pairs. The SPSS PROCESS macro was used for the data analysis. The results indicate that ethical leadership positively affected nurses’ feedback-seeking. Ethical leadership influences feedback seeking through psychological safety. With high power distance, ethical leadership significantly positively influenced psychological safety and then positively affected feedback-seeking behavior. In sum, in the context of high-power distance, ethical leadership is especially important for psychological safety and feedback-seeking behavior.
Highlights
Constructive feedback guides or reinforces effective behaviors and reduces or stops ineffective behaviors (Steffens et al, 2018)
We found that power distance served as a moderator in the relationship between ethical leadership and psychological safety
The main contributions of this study are reflected in the three aspects discussed below: First, this study successfully linked ethical leadership with feedback seeking, which fills the gap of feedback-seeking research
Summary
Constructive feedback guides or reinforces effective behaviors and reduces or stops ineffective behaviors (Steffens et al, 2018). Leaders have a general sense that feedback is good to give and receive, but many leaders are uncomfortable telling subordinates they have done well, and leaders feel even more uncomfortable telling others they have performed poorly, because some leaders think feedback should come in the form of the annual performance appraisal review (London, 2014). Research has confirmed that subordinates, who often seek feedback show strong organizational identification, higher task performance, better creative performance, and lower turnover tendency (Li and Qian, 2016). More subordinates dodge evaluations of their performance and opportunities to learn how they can improve because subordinates are concerned about the potentially harmful effects of negative feedback, and they generally view feedback seeking as risky (Michiel and Frederik, 2013). Even if some subordinates need external feedback, and leaders encourage feedbackseeking, subordinates often choose not to seek feedback (Stoker et al, 2012)
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