Supervisor Feedback and Employee Feedback Seeking Behaviors: Testing a Mediated Moderation Model

Abstract

In this three-wave field study, we investigate how supervisor feedback affects employees’ subsequent feedback inquiry and monitoring behaviors. Drawing from Feedback Intervention Theory, we identify positive and negative feedback and perceived feedback quality as critical cues of supervisor feedback. Further, we propose that these feedback cues interact in shaping employee psychological empowerment and perceptions of supervisor abusiveness, which in turn affect employee future feedback inquiry and monitoring behaviors differently. Consistent with our expectations, perceived feedback quality moderates the relationship between positive supervisor feedback and employee psychological empowerment, which in turn relates to feedback inquiry but not monitoring. Specifically, only when perceived feedback quality is high, there is positive effect of positive supervisor feedback on subsequent feedback inquiry via psychological empowerment. Further, as expected, perceived feedback quality moderates the relationship between negative supervisor feedback and employees’ perceptions of supervisor abusiveness, which in turn relates to feedback monitoring but not inquiry. Specifically, only when perceived feedback quality is high, negative supervisor feedback has an indirect effect on feedback monitoring via perceptions of supervisor abusiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.