Feedback-seeking Behavior Research Articles

Seeking feedback but unable to improve work performance? Qualified feedback from trusted supervisors matters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the boundary conditions in the relationship between feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) and work performance. The authors hypothesized that the positive influence of employees’ FSB on their work performance is influenced by perceived quality of feedback. The authors also expected that employees’ trust in their supervisors moderated the interaction between their FSB and perceived feedback quality. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 202 employees in South Korea. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis. Findings – The results showed that while employees’ FSB was positively related to work performance, the influence was stronger for employees who perceived they were receiving high quality of feedback from supervisors. The authors also found that the moderating effect of feedback quality on the relationship between FSB and work performance was stronger when employees had high levels of trust in their supervisors. Practical implications – The findings suggest that if managers wish to encourage employees to achieve work goal and desirable performance levels by actively engaging in FSB, they should pay more attention to providing high quality of feedback and building trust with employees. Originality/value – This study contributes to expand the understanding of FSB-work performance relationship by verifying the boundary conditions, which suggests the importance of examining the moderating factors in the FSB mechanism.

Multilevel Antecedents of Feedback-seeking Behavior: Linear and Curvilinear Effects on Creativity

Departing from extant studies that focus on managerial function in enhancing employee creativity, the present study highlights the proactive role of employees as drawn from literature of self-regul...

Predicting public or private feedback-seeking behaviors

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the presence of an audience inhibits or facilitates feedback-seeking behaviors.Design/methodology/approach– A sample of 148 employees completed a survey questionnaire regarding feedback-seeking behaviors. Perceived value of public and private feedback, public self-consciousness (PSC), and tolerance for ambiguity were used to predict public or private feedback-seeking behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regression were used to test the hypotheses.Findings– Statistically significant relationships were found between perceived value of public feedback, PSC, tolerance for ambiguity, and public feedback seeking. Subsequently, statistically significant relationships were only found between perceived value of private feedback, tolerance for ambiguity, and private feedback seeking.Research limitations/implications– Future research should focus on how individuals respond to less privacy in the workplace in regards to feedback-seeking behaviors.Practical implications– Many more companies are moving to open office spaces and cubicles which suggest there is less privacy for employees to seek feedback. This study found that employees do make a distinction when seeking feedback in a public or private context.Originality/value– This is the first field study to identify specific antecedents relating to seeking feedback in a public or private context. With this study, the feedback context becomes another important variable in understanding how an individual's feedback environment may relate to feedback seeking.

Relationship between Goal Orientations with Feedback-Seeking Behavior among Sample from the Hashemite University Students

This study aimed at exploring the relationship between goal orientation (GO) and the feedback-seeing behavior (FSB). The sample consisted of 330 students from four sections which were chosen randomly from the university requirements of the Hashemite University.These courses were chosen purposively because they contain students from different faculties and majors. The students completed the GO and the FSB questionnaires. The results showed that the females adopted learning-approach goals, but the males adopted performance-approach goals. Concerning the FSB, students sought self-validation feedback. In respect to gender differences in FSB, males sought self-validation feedback, whereas females sought self-improvement feedback. The results also showed that there was a negative correlation between performance-approach goals and self-improvement feedback, but there was a positive correlation between performance-approach goals and self-improvement feedback. Learning-approach goals were positively correlated with self-improvement feedback, but correlated negatively with self-validation feedback.

Relationship between Goal Orientations with Feedback-Seeking Behavior among Sample from the Hashemite University Students

This study aimed at exploring the relationship between goal orientation (GO) and the feedback-seeing behavior (FSB). The sample consisted of 330 students from four sections which were chosen randomly from the university requirements of the Hashemite University.These courses were chosen purposively because they contain students from different faculties and majors. The students completed the GO and the FSB questionnaires. The results showed that the females adopted learning-approach goals, but the males adopted performance-approach goals. Concerning the FSB, students sought self-validation feedback. In respect to gender differences in FSB, males sought self-validation feedback, whereas females sought self-improvement feedback. The results also showed that there was a negative correlation between performance-approach goals and self-improvement feedback, but there was a positive correlation between performance-approach goals and self-improvement feedback. Learning-approach goals were positively correlated with self-improvement feedback, but correlated negatively with self-validation feedback.

Subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior in supervisory relationships: A moderated mediation model of supervisor, subordinate, and dyadic characteristics

AbstractThis study examines the mediating role of subordinates’ perceived cost of feedback-seeking, which operates contingently upon their self-monitoring and the credibility of leader as a feedback source in the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior. The authors tested this moderated mediation model using reports from 217 subordinates employed in five large banking institutions in Korea. Results showed that the relationship between LMX quality and subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior was mediated via the perceived cost of feedback-seeking only for subordinates with low self-monitoring and when leader credibility was low. This conditional indirect effect provides an integrated understanding of how supervisor, subordinate, and dyadic characteristics influence subordinates’ decision of whether to seek performance feedback.

Initiatives to Improve Feedback Culture in the Final Year of a Veterinary Program

Despite the recognized importance of feedback in education, student satisfaction with the feedback process in medical and veterinary programs is often disappointing. We undertook various initiatives to try to improve the feedback culture in the final clinical year of the veterinary program at the University of Bristol, focusing on formative verbal feedback. The initiatives included E-mailed guidelines to staff and students, a faculty development workshop, and a reflective portfolio task for students. Following these initiatives, staff and students were surveyed regarding their perceptions of formative feedback in clinical rotations, and focus groups were held to further explore issues. The amount of feedback appeared to have increased, along with improved recognition of feedback by students and increased staff confidence and competence in the process. Other themes that emerged included inconsistencies in feedback among staff and between rotations; difficulties with giving verbal feedback to students, particularly when it relates to professionalism; the consequences of feedback for both staff and students; changes and challenges in students' feedback-seeking behavior; and the difficulties in providing accurate, personal end-of-rotation assessments. This project has helped improve the feedback culture within our clinics; the importance of sustaining and further developing the feedback culture is discussed in this article.

Supervisor-subordinate guanxi and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of Chinese organizations, especially the mediating role of psychological expectations and the moderating role of political skill.Design/methodology/approach– The study sample comprised matched surveys from 252 supervisor-subordinate dyad in the People’s Republic of China. The subordinate managers completed measures of SSG, performance enhancement expectations, impression management expectations and political skill. The supervisors were asked to rate managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.Findings– Result show that SSG was positively related to managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Performance enhancement expectations and impression management expectations partially mediated supervisor-subordinate guanxi’s influence on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Political skill positively moderated the relationships between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in such a way that the relationships were stronger for managers higher in political skill than lower.Research limitations/implications– The paper not only helps for deeper understanding of managers’ feedback-seeking behavior but also provides a new perspective for exploring effective governance of Chinese local managers.Originality/value– This study provides preliminary evidence of the mediation effect of psychological expectations and the moderating effect of political skill in the relationship between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Additionally, the findings highlight the necessity of study on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of China to help advance the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the effect of SSG on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.

The Impact of Goals and Pay on Feedback-Seeking Behavior

In light of the increasing use of electronic feedback systems in organizational settings, this study contributes to feedback-seeking research to examine feedback-seeking behavior and task performance when outcome feedback is paired with and without an assigned goal, under hourly and performance-based pay. A total of 120 undergraduate students attended three 45-minute sessions and performed a data-entry task, during which they were able to solicit immediate insession feedback. Descriptive and visual analyses indicated that feedback seeking occurred frequently across experimental sessions and increased as the time to the end of the session decreased. These trends are discussed herein. Task performance was significantly higher for individuals who were paid incentives, and patterns in performance across sessions differed significantly between pay groups. Although the inclusion of an assigned performance goal did not significantly enhance performance or the frequency of feedback seeking, descriptive analyses revealed that both feedback seeking and task performance were higher for those who received an assigned goal. Identifying the function of feedback-seeking behavior, as well as variables that may influence or interact with this behavior, may be useful when developing and implementing optimal and effective feedback systems.

Cognition- and Affect-Based Trust and Feedback-Seeking Behavior: The Roles of Value, Cost, and Goal Orientations

ABSTRACTWe examined how subordinates’ cognition- and affect-based trust in supervisors influences their feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) by considering the different cost/value perception of FSB and goal orientation (i.e., learning and performance goal orientations). Using data from 194 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea, we conducted multiple regression analyses to test our hypotheses. The results showed that, whereas subordinates’ cognition-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through increasing the perceived value of feedback received from supervisors, their affect-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through decreasing the perceived value of FSB. Additionally, we found that, when subordinates had high levels of learning goal orientation, the increasing influence of cognition-based trust on the value of feedback was stronger; in contrast, when subordinates had low levels of performance goal orientation, the decreasing influence of affect-based trust on the cost of FSB was stronger. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.

Exploring the antecedents and outcomes of feedback-seeking behaviour

By seeking feedback from supervisors, employees can adjust ineffective behaviours in time, enhance future work-related effectiveness, maintain high quality leader-member exchange, and create positive impressions in the minds of supervisors. Although a growing body of work has evoked interest in examining the antecedents and outcomes of feedback-seeking behaviour, a systematic review of the feedback-seeking literature is quite limited. The authors’ examination included 38 studies, containing 45 samples, and results indicate that three important categories of antecedents can be identified based on an individual’s disposition and cognition as well as organisational context factors. This article concludes with some thoughts about the future research agenda that might be pursued to further advance our understanding of employees’ feedback-seeking behaviour in organisation management.

The Power of Peers: Antecedents and Outcomes of Peer Feedback Seeking Behavior.

This study examines the conditions that prompt the seeking feedback from one's peers and enhance the value of that activity. Specifically, we propose that compared to conditions of low task interde...

An examination of feedback-seeking behaviors, the feedback source and career success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether individuals seeking feedback from either a supervisor or co-worker relate to intrinsic and extrinsic career success. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from 168 employees in three different organizations in the southeastern United States. Moderated multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – Results support interactions of feedback seeking and feedback source (both supervisor and co-worker) to predict extrinsic career success. There was no support for the proposed interaction of feedback seeking and feedback source to predict intrinsic career success. Practical implications – The results support the need for organizations to focus on developing feedback environments that encourage feedback-seeking behaviors. Individuals that desire more feedback and take initiative within their careers by seeking feedback may have positive outcomes related to extrinsic career success. Originality/value – The study is on...

Patients and learners: time for a re-evaluation of our goals in bringing them together

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Believing is seeing: how people's beliefs influence goals, emotions and behaviour

Health care professionals work and learn in complex environments. Some are able to continue learning from their practice and the challenges it presents, whereas others refrain from investing more effort when faced with setbacks. This paper discusses a social cognitive model of motivation that helps to explain the different kinds of behaviour that emerge when individuals are confronted with challenges. Self-theories (people's theories on what competence is and means for the self) play a major role in establishing the goals people set for themselves, the emotions they experience and the meanings they attach to situations. These self-views are often not explicitly articulated and are therefore called 'implicit' ('self-') theories. Social cognitive research suggests there are two distinct ways of thinking about one's personal attributes: entity theorists view a trait as a fixed, concrete internal entity, whereas incremental theorists instead believe a trait to be something malleable that can be developed or cultivated through effort. Holding an entity theory leads one to set performance goals and to harbour concerns about performing well and making a good impression. Holding an incremental theory tends to lead one to set learning goals, and to focus less on performance and more on spending time and effort in determining which strategies work. The current literature on self-theories is used to explore the relevance of these theories in medical education in three contexts: (i) it is argued that, in order to support lifelong learning, both individual and organisational efforts fit best with an incremental outlook on professional development; (ii) if it is to move forward in the domain of feedback-seeking behaviour, medical education might benefit from a better understanding of the interactions among self-theories, feedback behaviour, and the pervading role of organisational culture, and (iii) the impact of self-theories on assessors' evaluations of performance.

Cross-Level Effects of Team Task Interdependence on the Relationship Between Learning Goal Orientation and Feedback-Seeking Behaviors

The primary goal of this study was to examine the cross-level impact of team task interdependence (TTI) on employees’ feedback-seeking behaviors. To achieve this goal, this study empirically tested the multilevel effect of TTI on an individual-level motivator—learning goal orientation (LGO)—of feedback-seeking behaviors. A set of multilevel data was analyzed through hierarchical linear modeling. Through the analysis, this study could prove the significant roles of LGO and TTI.

Why supervisors should promote feedback-seeking behaviour in medical residency

Background: Individual disposition of goal orientation and situational factors of the working context, both generate and modulate motives to seek feedback.Aim: We looked for correlations between feedback-seeking and individual goal orientation, motives or concerns of feedback-seeking, working context of medical residents. We focussed on how promotion of feedback-seeking by supervisors and educational environment influenced motives and behaviours of feedback-seeking in residents.Methods: Web-based administration of a Likert-type composite questionnaire to residents of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Switzerland and mini-interviews.Results: Fifty-six (45%) of 125 residents completed the questionnaire. After multiple regression analysis promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors remained the sole predictor correlating with feedback-seeking through inquiry (R2 = 16) and the motive of self-improvement (R2 = 0.30). This predictor was also associated with reduced concerns of ego-protection (R2 = 0.14) and impression-defence (R2 = 0.18). Performance-avoid goal orientation was associated with concerns of impression-defence (R2 = 0.36) and ego-protection (R2 = 0.48). Women had significantly more concerns of ego-protection, residents with more than three years of experience more concerns of impression-defence. Disillusion that PG-training would ever improve, seemed the main reason to refuse participationConclusions: Promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors combined with delivery of high quality feedback may guide residents towards seeking feedback for professional self-improvement.

How Are We Doing After 30 Years? A Meta-Analytic Review of the Antecedents and Outcomes of Feedback-Seeking Behavior

This study provides meta-analytic estimates of the antecedents and consequences of feedback-seeking behavior (FSB). Clear support was found for the guiding cost/benefit framework in the feedback-seeking domain. Organizational tenure, job tenure, and age were negatively related to FSB. Learning and performance goal orientation, external feedback propensity, frequent positive feedback, high self-esteem, a transformational leadership style, and a high-quality relationship were positively associated with FSB. Challenging some of the dominant views in the feedback-seeking domain, the relationship between uncertainty and FSB was negative and the relationship between FSB and performance was small. Finally, inquiry and monitoring are not interchangeable feedback-seeking tactics. So FSB is best represented as an aggregate model instead of a latent model. In the discussion, gaps in the current FSB knowledge are identified and a research agenda for the future is put forward. Future research may benefit from (a) a systematic and integrative effort examining antecedents of both feedback-seeking strategies on the basis of a self-motives framework, (b) adopting a process perspective of feedback-seeking interactions, and (c) taking the iterative nature of feedback into account.

Abusive Supervision and Employee’ Performance: Mechanisms of FSB and Learning Goral Orientation

The literature on abusive supervision has consistently demonstrated the negative relationship between member perception of supervisor's abusive behavior and member performance.The process through which relationship supervisor's abusive behavior influences subordinates' performance,however,is still not fully understood.The present study provides a mechanism for the process.Specifically,we predict that the feedback seeking behavior(FSB) of members mediates these relationships,and learning goal orientation moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and FSB.In order to avoid the common method variance problem,two sources of survey were administrated.Data was from a total of 306 matched supervisor-subordinate dyads in 7 enterprises located in Hubei,Zhejiang,Xiamen.Two structured questionnaires were employed as the research instrument for this study.One consisted of three scales designed to measure abusive supervision,FSB and learning goal orientation.Among the major measures,the 15-items abusive supervision was adopted from Tepper(2000);FSB was measured via 6 items that was adopted from Saori Yanagizawa(2008);the five item learning goal orientation scale was adopted from Vandewalle Cummings(1997).We used a scale adopted from Tusi et al.(1997) in the other questionnaire to measure supervisor-rated subordinates' performance.Results show that the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for these above measures range from 0.75 to 0.94.Hierarchical regression and the total effect moderation model were utilized to examine the proposed hypotheses.In line with predictions,results of hierarchical regression demonstrate that abusive supervision is negatively related to FSB,supervisor-rated performance,and FSB partially mediate the relationship between abusive supervision and supervisor-rated performance.Specifically,the negative effect of abusive supervision on subordinates' performance was partially mediated by subordinates' FSB.In addition,results of total effect moderation model analysis reveal that subordinates' learning goal orientation moderate the relationship between abusive supervision and FSB.Abusive supervision was more strongly related to FSB when subordinates' learning goal orientation was low.The present study extends our understanding of social exchange between supervisor and subordinate in the link between abusive supervision and subordinate's performance.Finally,the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings,limitations and future research directions were also discussed.

Clarifying students’ feedback‐seeking behaviour in clinical clerkships

Why and how do students seek feedback on their performance in the clinical workplace and which factors influence this? These questions have remained largely unanswered in research into workplace learning during clinical clerkships. Research on feedback has focused mainly on feedback providers. Whether and how feedback recipients actively seek feedback are under-examined issues. Research in organisational psychology has proposed a mechanism whereby feedback seeking is influenced by motives and goal orientation mediated by the perceived costs and benefits of feedback. Building on a recently published model of resident doctors' feedback-seeking behaviour, we conducted a qualitative study to explore students' feedback-seeking behaviours in the clinical workplace. Between April and June 2011, we conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews with veterinary medicine students in Years 5 and 6 about their feedback-seeking behaviour during clinical clerkships. In the interviews, 14 students were asked about their goals and motives for seeking feedback, the characteristics of their feedback-seeking behaviour and factors influencing that behaviour. Using template analysis, we coded the interview transcripts and iteratively reduced and displayed the data until agreement on the final template was reached. The students described personal and interpersonal factors to explain their reasons for seeking feedback. The factors related to intentions and the characteristics of the feedback provider, and the relationship between the feedback seeker and provider. Motives relating to image and ego, particularly when students thought that feedback might have a positive effect on image and ego, influenced feedback-seeking behaviour and could induce specific behaviours related to students' orientation towards particular sources of feedback, their orientation towards particular topics for and timing of feedback, and the frequency and method of feedback-seeking behaviour. This study shows that during clinical clerkships, students actively seek feedback according to personal and interpersonal factors. Perceived costs and benefits influenced this active feedback-seeking behaviour. These results may contribute towards the optimising and developing of meaningful educational opportunities during clerkships.