Performance Feedback

Feedback Seeking Behavior

Moving beyond the view of the feedback target as a passive recipient of information, feedback has been conceptualized as an individual resource that people are motivated to actively seek. Originating in the work of Susan J. Ashford and Larry L. Cummings, this perspective portrays the workplace as an information environment in which individuals engage in feedback seeking behavior (FSB), enacting such strategies as monitoring the environment for feedback cues or [Page 605]making direct inquiries of actors in the environment in an effort to obtain personally relevant information.

A number of motivating factors can prompt an individual to engage in FSBs. First, feedback can reduce the uncertainty individuals experience regarding their roles or performance. Feedback can also serve an error corrective function and facilitate the attainment of competence or goal achievement. Furthermore, feedback has implications for self-evaluation and impression management. Individuals' desires to bolster their egos through obtaining positive feedback or, on the contrary, protect their egos by avoiding negative feedback can drive FSB. The greater the perceived value of feedback, the more proactive individuals will be in seeking it.

The costs perceived to accompany FSB can also affect the frequency of feedback seeking and the manner in which individuals pursue feedback. Costs of FSB are generally construed in terms of how much effort is necessary to acquire feedback information, concerns about image or loss of face, and the degree of inference required to make sense of feedback messages. Monitoring the feedback environment tends to necessitate less effort and invokes fewer image concerns than direct inquiry strategies. A trade-off exists between the accuracy and clarity of feedback and the effort and risk entailed in obtaining such feedback. Individuals desiring highly accurate feedback may forego the safer monitoring strategy in favor of inquiry. However, because feedback interpretation can be colored by such factors as recipient motives and expectations, even clearly communicated feedback messages can be misunderstood.

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