Perceived Insider Status and Feedback Reactions: A Dual Path of Feedback Motivation Attribution.

Xiao Chen,Weijiong Wu,Wei Zhang,Jianqiao Liao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00668

Xiao Chen, Weijiong Wu + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00668

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Abstract

Many studies have evaluated how the characteristics of feedback receiver, feedback deliverer and feedback information influence psychological feedback reactions of the feedback receiver while largely neglecting that feedback intervention is a kind of social interaction process. To address this issue, this study proposes that employees’ perceived insider status (PIS), as a kind of employee-organization relationship, could also influence employees’ reactions to supervisory feedback. In particular, this study investigates the influence of PIS focusing on affective and cognitive feedback reactions, namely feedback satisfaction and feedback utility. Surveys were conducted in a machinery manufacturing company in the Guangdong province of China. Samples were collected from 192 employees. Data analysis demonstrated that PIS and feedback utility possessed a U-shaped relationship, whereas PIS and feedback satisfaction exhibited positively linear relationships. The analysis identified two kinds of mediating mechanisms related to feedback satisfaction and feedback utility. Internal feedback motivation attribution partially mediated the relationship between PIS and feedback satisfaction but failed to do the same with respect to the relationship between PIS and feedback utility. In contrast, external feedback motivation attribution partially mediated the relationship between PIS and feedback utility while failing to mediate the relationship between PIS and feedback satisfaction. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.

Highlights

Performance feedback has been widely acknowledged as a vital organizational practice that is capable of improving employee performance and behavior
The results indicated that Cronbach’s α of all the scales used in our study was higher than 0.7 (PIS, 0.875; internal feedback motivation attribution, 0.741; external feedback motivation attribution, 0.869; feedback satisfaction, 0.936; and feedback utility, 0.924), which indicates that the scales have good internal consistency
We found the reversed patterns of results, perceived insider status (PIS) had an indirect effect on feedback satisfaction via internal feedback motivation attribution, this results could not be generalized to external feedback motivation attribution

Summary

Introduction

Performance feedback has been widely acknowledged as a vital organizational practice that is capable of improving employee performance and behavior. To understand why the effectiveness of feedback intervention is unstable, it is necessary to understand the recipients’ psychological reactions to feedback. For this purpose, scholars conceptualized the constructs of feedback reactions and attempted to measure them by utilizing the dimensions of cognition and Antecedents of Feedback Reactions emotion (Audia and Locke, 2003; Jawahar, 2006). Supervisors might understand that the effectiveness of that feedback could be improved by enhancing the quality of feedback information (Whitaker and Levy, 2012), delivering customized feedback to specific individuals (Mulder et al, 2013) or altering certain characteristics such as increasing their own power or reliability (Fedor et al, 2001; Tuytens and Devos, 2012)

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Discussion

Conclusion