Skip to main content

Using a Training Intervention to Improve the Feedback Environment

  • Chapter
Feedback at Work

Abstract

This chapter discusses a training intervention designed to improve the supervisor feedback environment. The supervisor feedback environment refers to the extent to which supervisors cultivate an environment that supports and promotes the provision and use of job performance feedback (Steelman et al., Educational and psychological measurement 64:165–184, 2004). A body of literature suggests that a favorable supervisor feedback environment is related to employee attitudes and behaviors, job performance, and well-being. However, few studies examine antecedents to a favorable feedback environment. In this chapter we discuss a supervisor training program, designed based on theories of effective training (Salas et al., Psychological science in the public interest 13:74–101, 2012). Outcomes of the supervisor training program included improved perceptions of the feedback environment, particularly for those supervisors who were initially rated as having a more unfavorable feedback environment, and increased subordinate feedback-seeking frequency.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aguinis, H., & Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 451–474.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anseel, F., Beatty, A. S., Shen, W., Lievens, F., & Sackett, P. R. (2015). How are we doing after 30 years? A meta-analytic review of the antecedents and outcomes of feedback-seeking behavior. Journal of Management, 41, 318–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anseel, F., & Lievens, F. (2007). The long-term impact of the feedback environment on job satisfaction: A field study in a Belgian context. Applied Psychology an International Review, 56(2), 254–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashford, S. J., Blatt, R., & Walle, D. V. (2003). Reflections on the looking glass: A review of research on feedback-seeking behavior in organizations. Journal of Management, 29(6), 773–799.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashford, S. J., & Cummings, L. L. (1983). Feedback as an individual resource: Personal strategies of creating information. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 32(3), 370–398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, B. S., & Kozlowski, S. W. (2008). Active learning: Effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 296.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, B. S., Tannenbaum, S. I., Ford, J. K., Noe, R. A., & Kraiger, K. (2017). 100 years of training and development research: What we know and where we should go. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 305.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brutus, S., & Greguras, G. J. (2008). Self-construals, motivation, and feedback-seeking behaviors. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 16(3), 282–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cappelli, P., & Tavis, A. (2016). The performance management revolution. Harvard Business Review, 94(10), 58–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chawla, N., Gabriel, A. S., Dahling, J. J., & Patel, K. (2016). Feedback dynamics are critical to improving performance management systems. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 9(2), 260–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahing, J. J., Gabriel, A. S., & MacGowan, S. (2017). Understanding typologies of feedback enviornment perceptions: A latent profile investigation. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 101, 133–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahling, J. J., Chau, S. L., & O’Malley, A. (2012). Correlates and consequences of feedback orientation in organizations. Journal of Management, 38(2), 531–546.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahling, J. J., & O’Malley, A. L. (2011). Supportive feedback environments can mend broken performance management systems. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4(02), 201–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Stobbeleir, K. E., Ashford, S. J., & de Luque, M. F. S. (2010). Proactivity with image in mind: How employee and manager characteristics affect evaluations of proactive behaviours. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(2), 347–369.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, A. S., Frantz, N. B., Levy, P. E., & Hilliard, A. W. (2014). The supervisor feedback environment is empowering, but not all the time: Feedback orientation as a critical moderator. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology., 87(3), 487–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goler, L., Gale, J., & Grant, A. (2016). Let’s not kill performance evaluations yet. Harvard Business Review, 94(11), 90–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory, J. B., & Levy, P. E. (2010). Employee coaching relationships: Enhancing construct clarity and measurement. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 3(2), 109–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heslin, P. A., Vandewalle, D., & Latham, G. P. (2006). Keen to help? Managers’ implicit person theories and their subsequent employee coaching. Personnel Psychology, 59(4), 871–902.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ilgen, D. R., Fisher, C. D., & Taylor, M. S. (1979). Consequences of individual feedback on behavior in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64(4), 349–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keith, N., & Frese, M. (2008). Effectiveness of error management training: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 59.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kinicki, A. J., Prussia, G. E., Wu, B., & McKee-Ryan, F. M. (2004). A covariance structure analysis of employees’ response to performance feedback. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 1057–1069.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, P. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, P. D., & Thompson, D. J. (2010). Feedback in organizations: Individual differences and the social context. In R. M. Sutton, M. M. Hornsey, & K. M. Douglas (Eds.), Feedback: The communication of praise, criticism, and advice. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, P. E., Cober, R. T., & Miller, T. (2002). The effect of transformational and transactional leadership perceptions on feedback-seeking intentions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(8), 1703–1720.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, P. E., Tseng, S. T., Rosen, C. C., & Lueke, S. B. (2017). Performance management: A marriage between practice and science – Just say “I do”. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 35, 155–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linderbaum, B. A., & Levy, P. E. (2010). The development and validation of the feedback orientation scale (FOS). Journal of Management, 36(6), 1372–1405.

    Google Scholar 

  • London, M. (2003). Job feedback: Giving, seeking, and using feedback for performance improvement. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • London, M., & Smither, J. W. (2002). Feedback orientation, feedback culture, and the longitudinal performance management process. Human Resource Management Review, 12(1), 81–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maurer, T. J., Weiss, E. M., & Barbeite, F. G. (2003). A model of involvement in work-related learning and development activity: The effects of individual, situational, motivational, and age variables. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 707.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norris-Watts, C., & Levy, P. E. (2004). The mediating role of affective commitment in the relation of the feedback environment to work outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 65(3), 351–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peng, J. C., Tseng, M. M., & Lee, Y. L. (2011). Relationships among supervisor feedback environment, work-related stressors, and employee deviance. Journal of Nursing Research, 19, 13–24.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson. (2009). Coaching and performance management: How can organizations get the greatest value? In J. Smither & M. London (Eds.), Performance management: Putting research into action. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pulakos, E. D., Hanson, R. M., Arad, S., & Moye, N. (2015). Performance management can be fixed: An on-the-job experiential learning approach for complex behavior change. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8(01), 51–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pulakos, E. D., & O’Leary, R. S. (2011). Why is performance management broken? Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4(2), 146–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, C. C., Levy, P. E., & Hall, R. J. (2006). Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 211–220.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S. I., Kraiger, K., & Smith-Jentsch, K. A. (2012). The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(2), 74–101.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sommer, k. L., & Kulkarni, M. (2012). Does constructive performance feedback improve citizenship intentions and job satisfaction? The roles of perceived opportunities for advancement, respect, and mood. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 23, 177–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparr, J. L., & Sonnentag, S. (2008). Feedback environment and well-being at work: The mediating role of personal control and feelings of helplessness. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17(3), 388–412.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steelman, L. A., Levy, P. E., & Snell, A. F. (2004). The feedback environment scale: Construct definition, measurement, and validation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64(1), 165–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steelman, L. A., & Rutkowski, K. A. (2004). Moderators of employee reactions to negative feedback. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19(1), 6–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steelman, L. A., & Wolfeld, L. (2018). The manager as coach: The role of feedback orientation. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(1), 41–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • VandeWalle, D., Ganesan, S., Challagalla, G. N., & Brown, S. P. (2000). An integrated model of feedback-seeking behavior: Disposition, context, and cognition. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(6), 996.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, J. P., Ashford, S. J., & Hill, T. E. (1985). Feedback obstruction: The influence of the information environment on employee turnover intentions. Human Relations, 38(1), 23–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitaker, B. G., Dahling, J. J., & Levy, P. (2007). The development of a feedback environment and role clarity model of job performance. Journal of Management, 33(4), 570–591.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. R., & Johnson, M. A. (2000). Self-supervisor agreement: The influence of feedback seeking on the relationship between self and supervisor ratings of performance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(2), 275–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. R., Miller, C. E., Steelman, L. A., & Levy, P. E. (1999). Increasing feedback seeking in public contexts: It takes two (or more) to tango. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(6), 969–976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, S. F., Richard, E. M., Moukarzel, R. G., Steelman, L. A., & Gentry, W. A. (2017). How empathic concern helps leaders in providing negative feedback: A two-study examination. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 90, 535–558.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa A. Steelman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gallo, J.R., Steelman, L.A. (2019). Using a Training Intervention to Improve the Feedback Environment. In: Steelman, L.A., Williams, J.R. (eds) Feedback at Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30915-2_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics