The Short-Term Effects of Supervisor Negative Feedback on Employee Well-Being and Performance

Abstract

Research has shown that negative feedback from supervisors tends to increase employees’ negative affect, resulting in unfavorable outcomes. Despite calls for more research on emotion specifically, rather than on general affect, the utility of discrete emotions in the feedback influencing process is largely overlooked. Drawing on affective events theory, we investigate the short-term effects of supervisor negative feedback on employees’ both well-being and performance, through the theoretically relevant emotion of shame. We tested the hypothesized model using a daily diary method from 119 full-time employees across five consecutive working days. Results show that at the within-person individual level, supervisor negative feedback is associated with employees’ feeling of shame, which increased their end-of-work emotional exhaustion while improving their next-day in-role and extra-role performance. Further, individual-level leader-member exchange (LMX) moderated the relationship between negative feedback and shame, with the relationship being stronger under the condition of high LMX. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.