Examination of the Explanatory Role of SelfEvaluation Motives when Studying FeedbackSeeking Behavior

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Examination of the Explanatory Role of
Self-Evaluation Motives when Studying
Feedback-Seeking Behavior in Organizations
Department of Personnel Management, Work
Organizational Psychology
Frederik Anseel Promotor Prof. Dr. F.
Lievens
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Feedback in organizations

• Traditional perspective
• Employees are passive recipients of feedback
• Employees defensive reactions to feedback
• Supervisors hesitant to give (negative) feedback
• Organizations feedback-rich environments

• New perspective
• Employees are active monitors and seekers of
  feedback
• Feedback-seeking behavior

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Feedback-seeking behavior

• a conscious devotion of effort toward
  determining the correctness and adequacy of
  behaviors for attaining valued end states
• (Ashford Cummings, 1983)
• Benefits
• Adjust goal-directed behavior
• Assess capabilities
• Manage impressions
• Enhance future effectiveness
• Learn the ropes of a new job

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Limitations

• Empirical inconsistencies
• Antecedents of feedback-seeking behavior
• Uncertainty / self-esteem
• Outcomes of feedback-seeking behavior
• Performance
• Conceptual shortcomings
• One dominant motive drives feedback-seeking
• Uncertainty reduction
• Not embedded in feedback process
• Role of feedback reactions

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Self-motives framework

• Four motives drive self-evaluation processes
• Self-enhancement
• I want to strengthen my ego
• Self-assessment
• I want to know where I stand
• Self-verification
• I want confirmation that I stand where I think I
  stand
• Self-improvement
• I want to improve myself

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Objectives

• Self-motives framework as conceptual
  underpinnings to
• Identify new antecedents of feedback-seeking
• Take a closer look at observed inconsistencies
• Integrate feedback-seeking and feedback reactions
• Shed new light on feedback performance
  relationship

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Study 1 Design

• How can feedback-seeking be encouraged in the
  direction of performance dimensions?
• Strategy Targeting lay beliefs about importance
  and modifiability
• Laboratory experiment
• 184 students
• Within-persons design with base-line condition
• Feedback-seeking after in-basket exercise

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Study 1 Results

• Changing lay beliefs affects feedback-seeking
  decisions
• Reversal in experimental condition as compared to
  base-line condition
• More feedback-seeking about important dimensions
  as opposed to unimportant dimensions
• More feedback-seeking about non-modifiable
  dimensions as opposed to modifiable dimensions

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Study 2 Design

• How does (un)certainty affect feedback-seeking
  behavior ?
• Laboratory experiment
• 126 students
• Uncertainty ratings of 8 managerial competencies
• Feedback-seeking after in-basket exercise
• Field study
• 140 employees of multinational
• Self-reports of uncertainty and feedback-seeking

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Study 2 Results

• Relationship between uncertainty and
  feedback-seeking more complicated than previously
  thought
• Curvilinear relationship in both lab and field
  study
• People seek more feedback when uncertainty is
  high and low than when uncertainty is moderate
• Relationship moderated by certainty orientation
  (field study)
• People with high certainty orientation seek more
  feedback when uncertainty is low

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Study 3 Design

• Do people prefer favorable or confirming
  feedback?
• Sample A
• 126 students
• Feedback two weeks after in-basket exercise
• Sample B
• 389 individuals via website VDAB
• Feedback immediately after in-basket exercise

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Study 3 Results

• Two weeks after performance
• High satisfaction with favorable feedback
• Self-enhancement motive
• Immediately after performance
• Satisfaction with favorable and confirming
  feedback
• Favorable feedback more important for
  satisfaction
• Reconciling self-enhancement and
  self-verification motives
• Little support for the role of initial
  uncertainty

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Study 4 Design

• How to improve the effect of feedback
  interventions on task performance?
• Strategy Elaboration of feedback
• Instigate deeper cognitive processing of feedback
• Sample A
• 436 final-year students from different majors
• Proctored setting
• Sample B
• 517 individuals via website VDAB
• Unproctored setting

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Study 4 Results

• In general, feedback alone improved task
  performance
• Acceptance of feedback predicted task performance
  on trial 2
• Task performance improved most when elaboration
  of feedback was required
• Eliciting extensive cognitive processing of
  feedback is an advisable strategy to improve
  feedback interventions in organizations

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Conclusions and implications

• Theoretical
• New antecedents and moderators in feedback
  process
• More insight in previously unresolved issues
• Integrating feedback-seeking in feedback research
• Self-motives framework as theoretical
  underpinnings
• Practical
• 14 recommendations, based on empirical findings,
  for improving feedback processes in organizations
  
• In-basket as a web-based self-assessment tool