The Effect of Employee Feedback-Seeking on Job Performance: An Empirical Study

Using Multi-System-Multi-Rater and upward feedback analytic survey techniques on 142 managers and 426 manager-matched subordinate staff, the study examined the association between feedback and job performance, and how the concept of self awareness could be used to explain feedback seeking. Feedback seeking did not have significant impact on performance. Self awareness mediated the relationship between feedback perception and feedback-seeking. Feedback perception appears to be a fundamental construct in feedback seeking and could have implication for organisations and job performance, and the conceptualisation of employee feedback seeking.IntroductionThe importance of active feedback seeking in relation to employee and managerial job performance is based on the idea that an effective employee or manager is good at self regulation (Ansell, Leviens & Levy, 2007; Ashford, Blatt & Vande Walle, 2003; Ashford & Tsui, 1 99 1 ; De Shon & Tara, 2009; Nowakoski & Kozlowski, 2005 ; Porath & Bateman, 2006). That is, an employee or manager who actively seeks feedback about his or her job performance is assumed to be more effective in his or her job than the one who does not, suggesting feedback-performance link.However, there are two main criticism of this assumption. Firstly, the impact of feedback on job performance appears inconsistent. Some studies suggest that feedback has a positive impact on subsequent job performance (Atwarter & Brett, 2006; Bailey & Fletcher, 2002; Haittie & Timperly, 2007; Heslin & Lathan, 2004; Smither, London, Flaut, Vargas, & Kucine, 2003) whereas others show no impact, or even negative impact (De Nisi & Kluger, 2000; Kluger & De Nisi, 1996; Kluger & Nir, 2006, Kuvaas, 201 1). Secondly, the impact of feedback on job performance in terms of the mechanisms involved has neither been clearly determined nor explained (Bailey & Austin, 2006; Jawahar, 2010; De Nisi & Kluger, 2000; Kluger & De Nisi, 1996; Kluger «fe Nir,2006). Also, current literature points to the absence of any sound theoretical basis in understanding the feedback seeking process (Ashford, Blatt «fe Vande Walle, 2003; Bailey & Austin, 2006; De Nisi & Kluger, 2000; Kluger «fe De Nisi, 1996; Maurer, Mitchell «fe Barbeite, 2002). There is nonetheless one major theoretical contender in the literature that feedback seeking is a self regulation process which postulates the centrality of self awareness as a means of explaining the feedback seeking process. But how the concept of self awareness can be used to explain the feedback seeking process itself has not been fully investigated (Atwater & Brett, 2006; Fletcher & Baldry, 2000).These situations make employee feedback seeking and its effect on job performance an ill-understood consideration, particularly, in the managerial domain in organisational settings and has led to re-examining feedback processes (Ansell et al., 2007; Bailey & Austin, 2006; Jawahar, 2010 Millward, Asumeng & McDowall,2010). This paper addresses these gaps in understanding by examining; a) the proposed relationship between feedback and performance, and b) whether variations in the levels of self-awareness will mediate this association and offer a potential explanation for the feedback seeking process.Feedback seeking and job performance in organisational contextsIn organisations, feedback seeking is a conscious effort to get information about the adequacy or appropriateness of job performance (Iglen & Davis, 2000). Employees are inclined to seek feedback if the perceived benefits outweigh the perceived costs. Benefits include information to deal with a particular difficult and uncertain situation, and learning for skill development to increase efficacy for job performance improvement (Ansell, et al., 2007;Bailey & Fletcher,2002; London,2003; Milward et al., 2010; Smither et al., 2003; Vande Walle, 2005). …