Feedback Recipients Research Articles

Examining the dimensionality of performance feedback messages: Source and recipient perceptions of influence attempts

Performance feedback is considered an effective means of influencing organizational members. Nevertheless, recipient perceptions regarding such attempts to motivate, change, and/or reinforce certain behaviors and attitudes will determine the eventual response. Often these responses are unexpected and less than desirable. Efforts to better understand the performance feedback construct have produced conceptions emphasizing its complexity and multidimensionality. However, a recent challenge to the usefulness and /or validity of such conceptualizations has prompted the research reported here. This study explores feedback recipients’ and sources’ perceptions of the underlying dimensionality or “hidden structure” of performance feedback messages.

Performance evaluation and compensation feedback messages: An integrated model

A theoretical model is developed which looks at both performance evaluation and compensation decisions as feedback messages. Underlying and critical to the model is the role of causal attributions made by both the supervisor/source and recipient of feedback about the causes of the recipient's performance. Specific hypotheses are generated which account for discrepancies between supervisor and subordinate about these causes of performance. In addition, the presence and impact of external organizational constraints on feedback recipients' perceptions and performance are discussed.

Employee responses to formal performance appraisal feedback.

Author(s): Pearce, JL; Porter, LW | Abstract: The present study investigates the attitudinal impacts of the receipt of formal performance appraisal feedback. It is suggested that the feedback that one is will be disconfirming for many feedback recipients. Therefore, it is hypothesized that (a) attitudes toward the performance appraisal systems and (b) organizational commitment will decrease and remain lower for those receiving ratings, whereas the attitudes of those receiving higher appraisal ratings will remain unchanged. The hypotheses are tested on panels of management and nonmanagement employees (these latter receiving new appraisals 12 months after their managers) in two federal agencies over a 30-month period using perceived and actual performance ratings. There was a significant and stable drop in the organizational commitment of satisfactory employees after the introduction of formal appraisals, with mixed results for attitudes toward the appraisal system. The findings suggest that potentially negative consequences of implicitly comparative formal performance appraisals can occur for those performing at a satisfactory, but not outstanding, level. This study also provides an empirical check on the accuracy of self-reported appraisal ratings. © 1986 American Psychological Association.

The Effect of Giving Informal Performance Feedback on Subsequent Formal Memory‐Based Performance Evaluations1

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that raters' formal memory‐based performance evaluations can be significantly influenced by their having previously given the ratee informal performance feedback. In Experiment 1 subjects either did or did not give informal feedback to another person who performed either well or poorly on an interviewing task. In Experiment 2 subjects role played giving informal feedback about behavior relevant to only one of the two performance dimensions subsequently evaluated. In both experiments subjects later ratcd the interpersonal and task performance of the feedback recipient. The results of both studies support the hypothesis for ratings of interpersonal performance. Giving informal feedback to a ratee exhibiting good interpersonal performance led to more positive interpersonal performance ratings, whereas giving informal feedback to a ratee exhibiting poor interpersonal performance led to more negative interpersonal performance ratings. Task performance ratings, on the other hand, were not affected. Conditions likely to have mitigated the impact of giving informal feedback on the task performance ratings are discussed, as are the implications of the results for practical strategies to improve the quality of formal memory‐based performance evaluations.

The effects of feedback source, message and receiver characteristics on intrinsic motivation

Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) predicts that positive competence feedback will increase intrinsic motivation (IM) through increased feelings of competence and self‐determination. The present study was a test of four variables that moderate the impact of verbal feedback on IM: the Valence of the feedback (positive vs. neutral), the source of the feedback (expert vs. nonexpert), the referent of the feedback (task behavior vs. personal), and the sex of the feedback recipient. An experimental simulation indicated that 1) positive feedback increases IM more than does neutral feedback, and 2) valence, referent and expertise interact (found with one of the two dependent measures), such that positive, task‐behavior feedback administered by an expert source increases IM more than any other combination of these three variables. When sex is included in analyses, significant interactions emerge indicating higher IM for females in: 1) personal referent conditions; 2) positive valence, expert source conditions; and ...

The effects of feedback about self and others on the recall and judgments of feedback-relevant information

After people have received feedback about the outcome of their behavior, their responses to information bearing on the validity of this feedback may be influenced by their desire to maintain a favorable self-image. This experiment investigated the cognitive mediators of these responses. Subjects who received negative feedback about their performance on an intelligence test disparaged intelligence tests in general and judged a report they had read to be unfavorable to intelligence tests. Nevertheless, they recalled more arguments in the report that were favorable to intelligence tests than did positive feedback recipients. These results contradicted the hypothesis that subjects selectively attend to information that helps them to maintain a positive self-concept in light of negative information about themselves. Rather, they may attempt to refute arguments that support the validity of the negative feedback they receive, and this relatively greater processing may facilitate the recall of these arguments later on. In contrast, there was no evidence that subjects try to refute information that calls the validity of positive feedback into question. Results had implications for two additional issues: first, whether the effect of performance feedback depends on whether it is received before or after information bearing on its validity; second, whether feedback has similar effects on recall and judgments by persons to whom it does not directly pertain.

Is "rejected" feedback really rejected?: Effects of informativeness on reactions to positive and negative personality feedback

Forty-eight undergraduate males completed a psychological test and were told one of two things regarding their test-taking behavior. In one condition, people were led to believe that they had been revealing in their responses (the informative condition); in the other condition, people were given no information about how revealing they had been (the noinformative condition). They were then given a positive or negative personality interpretation concerning assertiveness. The impact of this feedback was measured by feedback recipients’ (a) accuracy and acceptance ratings; (b) recall; and (c) self-descriptive statements in a purportedly independent setting. Positive feedback was rated as more accurate and accepted more than was negative feedback. For subjects who were told that they had been informative, negative feedback tended to be recalled more than was positive feedback. In a purportedly independent experiment, subjects completed questionnaires containing items about their assertiveness. Under the informative condition only, subjects who had received negative feedback rated themselves less favorably than did subjects who had received positive feedback. A possible theoretical reason for the informativeness results is discussed, and implications are drawn for the clinical setting.

On the Effectiveness of Students’ Evaluative Feedback to University Instructors

This review deals with the use of student ratings as feedback to teachers. Evidence suggests that differences in the source and nature of the feedback and in the attributes of feedback recipients partly explain the differential effect which feedback has on teachers. Issues associated with the research design of feedback studies are also surveyed. The review suggests the existence of a minimal effect at best of feedback on instructional improvement at the university level. Suggestions are offered for improving the nature of the feedback.

WILLINGNESS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO DEPRESSED PERSONS

It was hypothesized that identifying a recipient of social feedback as depressed would significantly affect the willingness of subjects to provide their reactions, and that therefore depressed persons receive different feed. back than nondepressed persons displaying the same behavior. Subjects listened to recorded descriptions of a male or female person who was described simply as a friend, or additionally, as having been depressed for a few days o ra month. The major finding was that subjects indicated they were less willing to provide positive reactions to the depressed target stimuli, and this was found to be the case for both solicited and volunteered reactions. Overall, female subjects were significantly more willing to provide both positive and negative reactions than were males. It was proposed that depressed persons are highly susceptible to environmental response, and that the withholding of positive reactions to depressed persons is in need of further study.