An integrated model of feedback-seeking behavior: disposition, context, and cognition

The Art (and Artifice) of Seeking Feedback: Clerkship Students' Approaches to Asking for Feedback

PURPOSE

As attention has shifted to learners as significant partners in feedback interactions, it is important to explore what feedback-seeking behaviors medical students use and how the faculty-student relationship affects feedback-seeking behaviors.

METHOD

This qualitative study was inspired by the organizational psychology literature. Third-year medical students were interviewed at Maine Medical Center in April-May 2017 after completing a traditional block rotation clerkship or a nine-month longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC). A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze transcripts and develop themes.

RESULTS

Fourteen students participated (eight LIC, six block rotation). Themes associated with why students sought feedback included goal orientations, perceived benefits and costs, and student and feedback provider characteristics. Factors influencing the way students sought feedback included busy environments, timing, and cues students were attuned to. Students described more inquiry than monitoring approaches and used various indirect and noninquiry techniques (artifice) in asking for feedback. Students did not find summative feedback as helpful as seeking feedback themselves, and they suggested training in seeking feedback would be beneficial. Faculty-student relationship dynamics included several aspects affecting feedback-seeking behaviors, and relationship differences in the LIC and block models affected feedback-seeking behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS

Medical students have many motives to seek feedback and adapt their feedback-seeking behaviors to actively participate in an intricate dialogic interaction with feedback providers. Students gradually refine the art (and artifice) of obtaining the specific feedback information that meets their needs. The authors offer a prototype curriculum that may facilitate students' development of feedback-seeking skills.

Leaders' Expressed Humility and Followers' Feedback Seeking: The Mediating Effects of Perceived Image Cost and Moderating Effects of Power Distance Orientation

We developed and tested a model to identify the role of leaders' expressed humility on employees' feedback-seeking processes. The data used in our study was from a sample of 248 employees and 57 of their immediate supervisors. The results revealed that: (1) leader's expressed humility positively related to employees' feedback seeking mediated by employees' perceived image cost; and (2) power distance orientation moderated the relationship between leader's expressed humility and employees' perceived image costs, such that the relationship was stronger when the power distance orientation was lower rather than higher. The results offer new insight into potential managerial practices that aim at stimulating feedback seeking. We conclude with a discussion for future research.

Undergraduate Medical Students' Perceptions on Feedback-Seeking Behaviour

Background

The concept of feedback-seeking behaviour has been widely studied, but there is still a lack of understanding of this phenomenon, specifically in an Indonesian medical education setting. The aim of this research was to investigate medical students' feedback-seeking behaviour in depth in one Indonesian medical school.

Methods

A qualitative method was employed to explore the feedback-seeking behaviour of undergraduate medical students in the Faculty of Medicine at Universitas Lampung. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with four student groups and each group consisted of 7-10 students from the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. Data triangulation was carried out through FGDs with teaching staff, and an interview with the Head of the Medical Education Unit.

Results

Study findings indicated that the motivation of students to seek feedback was underlain by the desire to obtain useful information and to control the impressions of others. Students will tend to seek feedback from someone to whom they have either a close relationship or whose credibility they value. The most common obstacle for students to seek feedback is the reluctance and fearfulness of receiving negative comments.

Conclusions

Through the identification of factors promoting and inhibiting feedback-seeking behaviour, medical education institutions are enabled to implement the appropriate and necessary measures to create a supportive feedback atmosphere in the learning process.

Don't Want to Look Dumb? The Role of Theories of Intelligence and Humanlike Features in Online Help Seeking

Numerous studies have shown that individuals' help-seeking behavior increases when a computerized helper is endowed with humanlike features in nonachievement contexts. In contrast, the current research suggests that anthropomorphic helpers are not universally conducive to help-seeking behavior in contexts of achievement, particularly among individuals who construe help seeking as a display of incompetence (i.e., entity theorists). Study 1 demonstrated that when entity theorists received help from an anthropomorphized (vs. a nonanthropomorphized) helper, they were more concerned about negative judgments from other people, whereas incremental theorists were not affected by anthropomorphic features. Study 2 showed that when help was provided by an anthropomorphized (vs. a nonanthropomorphized) helper, entity theorists were less likely to seek help, even at the cost of lower performance. In contrast, incremental theorists' help-seeking behavior and task performance were not affected by anthropomorphism. This research deepens the current understanding of the role of anthropomorphic computerized helpers in online learning contexts.

Uncovering the unknown: A grounded theory study exploring the impact of self-awareness on the culture of feedback in residency education

AIM

Self-assessment and reflection are essential for meaningful feedback. We aimed to explore whether the well-known Johari window model of self-awareness could guide feedback conversations between faculty and residents and enhance the institutional feedback culture.

METHODS

We had previously explored perceptions of residents and faculty regarding sociocultural factors impacting feedback. We re-analyzed data targeting themes related to self-assessment, reflection, feedback seeking and acceptance, aiming to generate individual and institutional feedback strategies applicable to each quadrant of the window.

RESULTS

We identified the following themes for each quadrant: (1) Behaviors known to self and others - Validating the known; (2) Behaviors unknown to self but known to others - Accepting the blind; (3) Behaviors known to self and unknown to others - Disclosure of hidden; and (4) Behaviors unknown to self and others - Uncovering the unknown. Normalizing self-disclosure of limitations, encouraging feedback seeking, training in nonjudgmental feedback and providing opportunities for longitudinal relationships could promote self-awareness, ultimately expanding the "open" quadrant of the Johari window.

CONCLUSIONS

The Johari window, a model of self-awareness in interpersonal communications, could provide a robust framework for individuals to improve their feedback conversations and institutions to design feedback initiatives that enhance its quality and impact.

'Playing the game': How do surgical trainees seek feedback using workplace-based assessment?

OBJECTIVES

Although trainees and trainers find feedback interactions beneficial, difficulties in giving and receiving feedback are reported. Few studies have explored what drives trainees to seek feedback. This study explores how workplace-based assessments (WBAs) influence the ways surgical trainees seek feedback and feedback interactions.

METHODS

Utilising a template analysis approach, we conducted 10 focus groups with 42 surgical trainees from four regions across the UK. Data were independently coded by three researchers, incorporating three a priori themes identified from a previous quantitative study. Further themes emerged from exploration of these data. The final template, agreed by the three researchers, was applied to all focus group transcripts. The themes were linked in a diagrammatical form to allow critical exploration of the data.

RESULTS

Trainees' perceptions of the purpose of WBA for learning or an assessment of learning, and their relationship with their trainer impacted upon how trainees chose to use WBA. Perceiving WBA as a test led trainees to 'play the game': seek positive and avoid negative feedback through WBA. Perceiving WBA as a chance to learn led trainees to seek negative feedback. Some trainees sought negative feedback outside WBA. Negative feedback was more important for changing practice compared with positive feedback, which enabled trainees to 'look good' but had less of an effect on changing clinical practice. The timing of feedback relative to WBA was also important, with immediate feedback being more beneficial for learning; however, delayed feedback was still sought using WBA.

DISCUSSION

Trainees' perceptions of the purpose of WBA and their relationship with their trainer informed when they chose to seek feedback. Trainees who perceived WBA as a test were led to 'play the game' by seeking positive and avoiding negative feedback. Outside of WBA, trainees sought negative feedback, which was most important for change in practice.

Ethical Leadership, Leader-Member Exchange and Feedback Seeking: A Double-Moderated Mediation Model of Emotional Intelligence and Work-Unit Structure

This research elucidates the role of ethical leadership in employee feedback seeking by examining how and when ethical leadership may exert a positive influence on feedback seeking. Using matched reports from 64 supervisors and 265 of their immediate employees from a hotel group located in a major city in China, we proposed and tested a moderated mediation model that examines leader-member exchange (LMX) as the mediator and emotional intelligence as well as work-unit structure as double moderators in the relationships between ethical leadership and followers’ feedback-seeking behavior from supervisors and coworkers. Our findings indicated that (1) LMX mediated the positive relationship between ethical leadership and feedback seeking from both ethical leaders and coworkers, and (2) emotional intelligence and work-unit structure served as joint moderators on the mediated positive relationship in such a way that the relationship was strongest when the emotional intelligence was high and work-unit structure was more of an organic structure rather than a mechanistic structure.

Leaders' Behaviors Matter: The Role of Delegation in Promoting Employees' Feedback-Seeking Behavior

Feedback helps employees to evaluate and improve their performance, but there have been relatively few empirical investigations into how leaders can encourage employees to seek feedback. To fill this gap we examined the relationship among delegation, psychological empowerment, and feedback-seeking behavior. We hypothesized that delegation promotes feedback-seeking behavior by psychologically empowering subordinates. In addition, power distance moderates the relationship between delegation and feedback-seeking behavior. Analysis of data from a sample of 248 full-time employees of a hotel group in northern China indicated that delegation predicts subordinates' feedback seeking for individuals with moderate and high power distance orientation, but not for those with low power distance orientation. The mediation hypothesis was also supported.

Surgical Trainee Feedback-Seeking Behavior in the Context of Workplace-Based Assessment in Clinical Settings

PURPOSE

To investigate surgical trainee feedback-seeking behaviors-directly asking for feedback (inquiry) and observing and responding to situational clues (monitoring)-in the context of workplace-based assessment (WBA).

METHOD

A hypothetical model of trainee feedback-seeking behavior was developed using existing literature. A questionnaire, incorporating previously validated instruments from organizational psychology, was distributed to general surgical trainees at 23 U.K. hospitals in 2012-2013. Statistical modeling techniques compared the data with 12 predetermined hypothetical relationships between feedback-seeking behaviors and predictive variables (goal orientation, supervisory style) through mediating variables (perceptions of personal benefits and costs of feedback) to develop a final model.

RESULTS

Of 235 trainees invited, 178 (76%) responded. Trainees completed 48 WBAs/year on average, and 73% reported receiving feedback via WBA. The final model was of good fit (chi-square/degree of freedom ratio = 1.620, comparative fit index = 0.953, root mean square error of approximation = 0.059). Modeled data showed trainees who perceive personal benefits to feedback use both feedback inquiry and monitoring to engage in feedback interactions. Trainees who seek feedback engage in using WBA. Trainees' goal orientations and perceptions of trainers' supervisory styles as supportive and instrumental are associated with perceived benefits and costs to feedback.

CONCLUSIONS

Trainees actively engage in seeking feedback and using WBA. Their perceptions of feedback benefits and costs and supervisory style play a role in their feedback-seeking behavior. Encouraging trainees to actively seek feedback by providing specific training and creating a supportive environment for feedback interactions could positively affect their ability to seek feedback.

Team goal orientation composition, team efficacy, and team performance: The separate roles of team leader and members

This study aims to examine team goal orientation composition regarding the different roles of a leader’s and team members’ collective goal orientation, and the effects of these on team outcomes. Data included 268 respondents from 64 teams. Results showed team members’ learning goal orientation has positive effect on team performance, mediated by team efficacy. Further, for the role of team leader, the results also revealed the same pattern. Study also showed a leader’s performance goal orientation has negatively related on team performance, mediated by team efficacy. Finally, taking both roles simultaneously, study indicated the interaction between a leader’s and members’ performance goal orientation has negatively related to team efficacy, and the interaction between a leader’s and members’ learning goal orientation has negatively related to team performance. This research contributes to the existing goal orientation theory by taking the different roles of team leader and members into consideration.

Organizational and career-oriented commitment and employee development behaviors

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to contrast the foundations of (affective) organizational and career-oriented commitment. Using social exchange theory as a background, organizational commitment is proposed as a mediator between perceived organizational support (POS) and competence development activities and feedback-seeking behavior. Career-oriented commitment, defined as a self-interested orientation toward one’s career, is proposed to mediate a positive relationship between proactive personality and competence development but a negative relationship between proactive personality and feedback-seeking.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected from 126 employees using one-year time-lagged study in which POS and proactive personality were measured at Time 1, commitment variables at Time 2, and competence development and feedback-seeking at Time 3.

Findings

– Organizational commitment mediated a positive relationship between POS and competence development but not feedback-seeking. Career-oriented commitment mediated a negative relationship between proactive personality and feedback-seeking but did not mediate the relationship to competence development. Proactive personality exerted direct and positive effects on competence development and feedback-seeking, but had a negative effect on feedback-seeking through career-oriented commitment.

Practical implications

– An implication of these findings is that organizations need to reduce the detrimental effects that the proactivity trait exerts on feedback-seeking through career-oriented commitment. One way to do this is to increase the fit between organizational career opportunities and the career expectations of employees with high career-oriented commitment.

Originality/value

– This study indicates that social exchange and self-interest motives act as distinct drivers of organizational and career-oriented commitment, respectively, and that these motives have implications for how individuals learn and socialize in the workplace.

The relation of feedback-seeking motives and emotion regulation strategies to front-line managers’ feedback source profiles: A person-centered approach

Although the current literature offers some preliminary information about seeking feedback from various sources, a variable-centered approach has been adopted in which seeking feedback from supervisors and from subordinates was treated separately. We endeavored to extend this work through model-based cluster analysis, a person-centered approach, to identify distinct feedback source profiles in our sample of 209 front-line manager–supervisor dyads. Additionally, we aimed to explore whether such profiles differed between two feedback motives, perceived instrumental value and perceived image cost, as well as managers’ emotion regulation strategies. Results revealed six feedback source profiles and such profiles are associated not only with their perceived image cost and instrumental value but also with their emotion regulation strategies.

Sharing my knowledge? An interactional perspective

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate individual knowledge sharing. Specifically, the authors investigated the roles of coworker support and individual characteristics, i.e., exchange ideology and learning orientation on knowledge sharing.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected from questionnaires distributed to employees and their direct supervisors in two companies in South Korea. Hierarchical regression analyses and simple slope test were performed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

– Coworker support and learning orientation is positively but exchange ideology is negatively related to knowledge sharing. Furthermore, when coworker support is low, knowledge sharing is mainly dependent on each individual’s characteristics. However, when coworker support is high, employees showed high level of knowledge sharing irrespective of their individual characteristics.

Research limitations/implications

– This study suggested that the support from coworker as well as individuals’ characteristics plays an important role in determining their knowledge sharing behaviors. Moreover, the authors found the significant interaction effects of coworker support and individual characteristics on knowledge sharing, drawing on insights from trait activation theory.

Practical implications

– For organizations to encourage individual knowledge sharing behaviors, they may need to maintain the work environment that encourages the peer workers to support each other.

Originality/value

– Although many actions have been adopted to foster knowledge management in organizations, employees may still be reluctant to share their knowledge. This paper highlights not only the main effects of coworker support and individual differences but also the interaction effect between them in facilitating knowledge sharing.

Behavioral mechanism and boundary conditions of transformational process

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine a behavioral mechanism linking transformational leadership (TFL) and subordinates’ task performance and its boundary conditions. The authors examined the mediation role of subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior and the interactive effect of self-efficacy and dyadic tenure on the transformational leadership-task performance link.

Design/methodology/approach

– Paper and pencil surveys were administered to 239 supervisor-subordinate dyads from different industries in Taiwan. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the discriminant validity of the main variables. Hierarchical linear regression and bootstrapping were used to examine the moderated mediation effect.

Findings

– First, subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior mediates the relationship between TFL and subordinates’ task performance. Second, self-efficacy mitigates this mediation process when dyadic tenure is low, whereas self-efficacy enhances this mediation process when dyadic tenure is high.

Research limitations/implications

– The use of a cross-sectional design prevents us from drawing causal conclusions.

Practical implications

– This study suggests that for high-self-efficacy subordinates, organizations should try to shorten the period required to familiarize oneself with transformational leaders. In contrast, for low-self-efficacy subordinates, organizations should try to enhance their self-efficacy over time to ensure that they are capable of implementing transformational leaders’ expectations in the long run.

Originality/value

– This empirical study examines a behavioral mechanism in the TFL-task performance link. In addition, by addressing the interactive effect of TFL, self-efficacy and dyadic tenure, it resolves theoretical conflicts and enables us to better understand the effectiveness of TFL in different contexts. A Chinese sample is also unique and valuable.

Managing the Interpersonal Aspect of Performance Management

It is safe to assume that an accurate performance appraisal (PA) is an important prerequisite to an effective performance management (PM) system, because with accurate PA information, management, teams, and employees can engage in the process of identifying and developing a wide range of job-relevant knowledge or skills to improve job performance. However, researchers and practitioners alike must continue to push for PA to be something other an administrative ritual; the ideal goal for PA is for it to contribute to a reliable process that can offer practical help to organizational operations, including PM. As Pulakos, Mueller Hanson, Arad, and Moye (2015) have pointed out, supervisors are concerned about demotivating or disengaging employees by providing PA ratings that are too much lower than the highest rating or ranking that is available, so having ratings that are clustered at the high end of the rating scale is quite common across organizations (Bretz, Milkovich, & Read, 1992).

The impact of future time orientation on employees’ feedback-seeking behavior from supervisors and co-workers: The mediating role of psychological ownership

Future time orientation is essential if an employee is to be motivated to conduct activities that generate long-term rather than immediate gain, and which may involve risk. Given that feedback seeking requires the employee to slow down and seek input, it is surprising that little is known about the relationship between future time orientation and feedback seeking. Drawing upon psychological ownership theory and construal-level theory, we hypothesized a positive influence of future time orientation on feedback seeking from various sources (i.e., supervisors and co-workers). We also hypothesized job-based psychological ownership as a newly identified motive of feedback seeking and employed it to explain how future time orientation exerts influences. Tested with data from a sample of 228 subordinate–supervisor dyads from China, the results revealed that (1) future time orientation was positively related to feedback seeking from supervisors and co-workers and (2) job-based psychology ownership mediated the relationship between future time orientation and feedback seeking.

Seeking feedback but unable to improve work performance? Qualified feedback from trusted supervisors matters

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the boundary conditions in the relationship between feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) and work performance. The authors hypothesized that the positive influence of employees’ FSB on their work performance is influenced by perceived quality of feedback. The authors also expected that employees’ trust in their supervisors moderated the interaction between their FSB and perceived feedback quality.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected from 202 employees in South Korea. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis.

Findings

– The results showed that while employees’ FSB was positively related to work performance, the influence was stronger for employees who perceived they were receiving high quality of feedback from supervisors. The authors also found that the moderating effect of feedback quality on the relationship between FSB and work performance was stronger when employees had high levels of trust in their supervisors.

Practical implications

– The findings suggest that if managers wish to encourage employees to achieve work goal and desirable performance levels by actively engaging in FSB, they should pay more attention to providing high quality of feedback and building trust with employees.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to expand the understanding of FSB-work performance relationship by verifying the boundary conditions, which suggests the importance of examining the moderating factors in the FSB mechanism.

Authentic leadership and feedback-seeking behaviour: An examination of the cultural context of mediating processes in China

Despite an increasing number of studies that show a positive relationship between the supportiveness of the feedback source and feedback seeking, little is known about the role that supervisors play in promoting employee feedback-seeking behaviour when they serve as feedback sources. The present article developed a model to fill this void and tested it with data from a sample of 237 supervisor–subordinate dyads. We hypothesized and found that authentic leadership was positively related to feedback-seeking behaviour mediated by both perceived instrumental value and image cost of feedback seeking. The results also demonstrated that employees' individual cultural value of power distance moderated the relationships between authentic leadership and the perceived instrumental value and image cost of feedback seeking.

Authentic leadership and feedback-seeking behaviour: An examination of the cultural context of mediating processes in China

Despite an increasing number of studies that show a positive relationship between the supportiveness of the feedback source and feedback seeking, little is known about the role that supervisors play in promoting employee feedback-seeking behaviour when they serve as feedback sources. The present article developed a model to fill this void and tested it with data from a sample of 237 supervisor–subordinate dyads. We hypothesized and found that authentic leadership was positively related to feedback-seeking behaviour mediated by both perceived instrumental value and image cost of feedback seeking. The results also demonstrated that employees' individual cultural value of power distance moderated the relationships between authentic leadership and the perceived instrumental value and image cost of feedback seeking.

Learning Agility: In Search of Conceptual Clarity and Theoretical Grounding

As organizations become more complex and dynamic, individuals' ability to learn from experience becomes more important. Recently, the concept of learning agility has attracted considerable attention from human resource professionals and consultants interested in selecting on and developing employees' ability to learn from experience. However, the academic community has been largely absent from this discussion of learning agility, and the concept remains ill defined and poorly measured. This article presents a constructive critique of the existing literature on learning agility, seeks to clarify the definition and conceptualization of the construct, and situates learning agility within a broader nomological network of related constructs. We conclude by discussing several important directions for future research on learning agility.

Subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior in supervisory relationships: A moderated mediation model of supervisor, subordinate, and dyadic characteristics

This study examines the mediating role of subordinates’ perceived cost of feedback-seeking, which operates contingently upon their self-monitoring and the credibility of leader as a feedback source in the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior. The authors tested this moderated mediation model using reports from 217 subordinates employed in five large banking institutions in Korea. Results showed that the relationship between LMX quality and subordinates’ feedback-seeking behavior was mediated via the perceived cost of feedback-seeking only for subordinates with low self-monitoring and when leader credibility was low. This conditional indirect effect provides an integrated understanding of how supervisor, subordinate, and dyadic characteristics influence subordinates’ decision of whether to seek performance feedback.

Cognition- and affect-based trust and feedback-seeking behavior: the roles of value, cost, and goal orientations

We examined how subordinates' cognition- and affect-based trust in supervisors influences their feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) by considering the different cost/value perception of FSB and goal orientation (i.e., learning and performance goal orientations). Using data from 194 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea, we conducted multiple regression analyses to test our hypotheses. The results showed that, whereas subordinates' cognition-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through increasing the perceived value of feedback received from supervisors, their affect-based trust in supervisors positively influenced their FSB through decreasing the perceived value of FSB. Additionally, we found that, when subordinates had high levels of learning goal orientation, the increasing influence of cognition-based trust on the value of feedback was stronger; in contrast, when subordinates had low levels of performance goal orientation, the decreasing influence of affect-based trust on the cost of FSB was stronger. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research were discussed.

Factors influencing trainers' feedback-giving behavior: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

The literature provides some insight into the role of feedback givers, but little information about within-trainer factors influencing 'feedback-giving behaviours'. We looked for relationships between characteristics of feedback givers (self-efficacy, task perception, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness) and elements of observation and feedback (frequency, quality of content and consequential impact).

METHODS

We developed and tested several hypotheses regarding the characteristics and elements in a cross-sectional digital survey among GP trainers and their trainees in 2011 and 2012. We conducted bivariate analysis using Pearson correlations and performed multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

Sixty-two trainer-trainee couples from three Dutch institutions for postgraduate GP training participated in the study. Trainer scores on 'task perception' and on a scale of the trait 'neuroticism' correlated positively with frequency of feedback and quality of feedback content. Multiple regression analysis supported positive correlations between task perception and frequency of feedback and between neuroticism and quality of feedback content. No other correlations were found.

CONCLUSION

This study contributes to the literature on feedback giving by revealing factors that influence feedback-giving behaviour, namely neuroticism and task perception. Trainers whose task perception included facilitation of observation and feedback (task perception) and trainers who were concerned about the safety of their patients during consultations with trainees (neuroticism) engaged more frequently in observation and feedback and gave feedback of higher quality.

Age differences in achievement goals and motivational characteristics of work in an ageing workforce

This study reviews theory and results from developmental psychology to examine age differences in workplace achievement goals. We investigated whether goal level decreases with age and, by comparing the relative strength of different goals within individuals, we examined whether dominant achievement goals are related to age. In a large sample of employees (N=747), older workers' higher affective commitment and intrinsic motivation compensated for age-related decline in the importance of achievement goals. Whether learning-approach and learning-avoidance were dominant goals was not related to age but instead to skill level, affective commitment and intrinsically satisfying work. Dominant performance-approach goals were more common among males. Performance-avoidance was most likely to be a dominant goal among older males. Moreover, with age, performance-goal orientations had increasingly maladaptive consequences for self-efficacy and affect at work.

Feedback about Teaching in Higher Ed: Neglected Opportunities to Promote Change

Despite ongoing dissemination of evidence-based teaching strategies, science teaching at the university level is less than reformed. Most college biology instructors could benefit from more sustained support in implementing these strategies. One-time workshops raise awareness of evidence-based practices, but faculty members are more likely to make significant changes in their teaching practices when supported by coaching and feedback. Currently, most instructional feedback occurs via student evaluations, which typically lack specific feedback for improvement and focus on teacher-centered practices, or via drop-in classroom observations and peer evaluation by other instructors, which raise issues for promotion, tenure, and evaluation. The goals of this essay are to summarize the best practices for providing instructional feedback, recommend specific strategies for providing feedback, and suggest areas for further research. Missed opportunities for feedback in teaching are highlighted, and the sharing of instructional expertise is encouraged.

Encouraging residents to seek feedback

AIM

To explore resident and faculty perceptions of the feedback process, especially residents' feedback-seeking activities.

METHODS

We conducted focus groups of faculty and residents exploring experiences in giving and receiving feedback, feedback-seeking, and suggestions to support feedback-seeking. Using qualitative methods and an iterative process, all authors analyzed the transcribed audiotapes to identify and confirm themes.

RESULTS

Emerging themes fit a framework situating resident feedback-seeking as dependent on four central factors: (1) learning/workplace culture, (2) relationships, (3) purpose/quality of feedback, (4) emotional responses to feedback. Residents and faculty agreed on many supports and barriers to feedback-seeking. Strengthening the workplace/learning culture through longitudinal experiences, use of feedback forms and explicit expectations for residents to seek feedback, coupled with providing a sense of safety and adequate time for observation and providing feedback were suggested. Tensions between faculty and resident perceptions regarding feedback-seeking related to fear of being found deficient, the emotional costs related to corrective feedback and perceptions that completing clinical work is more valued than learning.

CONCLUSION

Resident feedback-seeking is influenced by multiple factors requiring attention to both faculty and learner roles. Further study of specific influences and strategies to mitigate the tensions will inform how best to support residents in seeking feedback.

Why supervisors should promote feedback-seeking behaviour in medical residency

BACKGROUND

Individual disposition of goal orientation and situational factors of the working context, both generate and modulate motives to seek feedback.

AIM

We looked for correlations between feedback-seeking and individual goal orientation, motives or concerns of feedback-seeking, working context of medical residents. We focussed on how promotion of feedback-seeking by supervisors and educational environment influenced motives and behaviours of feedback-seeking in residents.

METHODS

Web-based administration of a Likert-type composite questionnaire to residents of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Switzerland and mini-interviews.

RESULTS

Fifty-six (45%) of 125 residents completed the questionnaire. After multiple regression analysis promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors remained the sole predictor correlating with feedback-seeking through inquiry (R(2) = 16) and the motive of self-improvement (R(2) = 0.30). This predictor was also associated with reduced concerns of ego-protection (R(2) = 0.14) and impression-defence (R(2) = 0.18). Performance-avoid goal orientation was associated with concerns of impression-defence (R(2) = 0.36) and ego-protection (R(2) = 0.48). Women had significantly more concerns of ego-protection, residents with more than three years of experience more concerns of impression-defence. Disillusion that PG-training would ever improve, seemed the main reason to refuse participation

CONCLUSIONS

Promotion of feedback-seeking through supervisors combined with delivery of high quality feedback may guide residents towards seeking feedback for professional self-improvement.