Understanding typologies of feedback environment perceptions: A latent profile investigation

Giving what they want: How congruence between expected feedback quality and delivered feedback quality influences leader-member exchange and job performance

As an attempt to solve the mixed results between leader feedback quality and employee job performance, this study proposes that employees' expected feedback quality plays a key role in how employees react to leader feedback. Specifically, drawing on needs-supplies fit and social exchange theory, we posit that congruence between expected feedback quality and delivered feedback quality positively relates to employee task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through leader-member exchange (LMX). Further, we posit that learning goal orientation may strengthen the positive effect of congruence between expected feedback quality and delivered feedback quality on LMX. Multi-wave data collected from 226 employees from China showed that congruence between expected feedback quality and delivered feedback quality improves LMX and in turn benefits task performance and OCB. Moreover, learning goal orientation intensifies the indirect effect of congruence between expected feedback quality and delivered feedback quality on task performance and OCB through LMX. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Impact of supervisor developmental feedback on employee innovative behavior: roles of psychological safety and face orientation

Purpose

Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study aims to examine the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee innovative behavior, incorporating with the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of face orientation.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted in 15 manufacturing companies in China. The participants comprised 302 employees. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The mediating effects and the moderated mediating effects are further examined with bias-corrected bootstrapping method.

Findings

Supervisor developmental feedback has a positive effect on employee innovative behavior through psychological safety, and this mediating effect is weakened by protective face orientation (fear of losing face), while the moderating effect of acquisitive face orientation (desire to gain face) is not significant.

Practical implications

Organizations should create a development-oriented and safe innovation atmosphere for employees. In addition, leaders should adopt differentiated feedback and communication methods according to subordinates' face orientation.

Originality/value

The study has demonstrated the positive effect of supervisor developmental feedback on employee innovative behavior, which is different from previous studies on performance feedback and leadership types. Meanwhile, this study has also explored the mediating effect of psychological safety and the moderating effect of face orientation, which provides more insights on the mechanism and boundary conditions of the effect of supervisor developmental feedback.

Supervisor positive feedback and employee performance: Promotion focus as a mediator

We explored the influence of supervisor positive feedback on employees' in-role and extrarole performance, and the mediating role of promotion focus in these relationships. Data were gathered at three time points from 373 Chinese employees and their immediate supervisors. We used hierarchical linear regression and the PROCESS macro to test our hypotheses. The results show that supervisor positive feedback was positively related to promotion focus, which was also positively related to employees' in-role and extrarole performance. In addition, promotion focus mediated the supervisor positive feedback–employee performance relationship. Our findings suggest that organizational managers should provide employees with positive feedback to improve their promotion focus, thereby enhancing employees' in-role and extrarole performance.

Do Visionary-Feedback Seeking CEOs Enhance Firm Sustainability Through Eco-Innovation? A Moderated Mediation Model

Based on upper echelons, paradox, and social capital theory, this study extends the association of CEO vision articulation and feedback-seeking behavior with firm sustainability by identifying the mediating role of eco-innovation and top management team (TMT) boundary-spanning behavior as a moderator. By analyzing the data of mid-sized to large Chinese firms using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping-based moderated path analysis, we found that product and process eco-innovation mediates the link between CEO vision articulation and firm sustainability while CEO feedback-seeking behavior enhances firm's sustainability through product eco-innovation only. Finally, conditional indirect effects show the vital role of TMT boundary-spanning behavior in facilitating CEOs to improve the firm's long-term sustainability through eco-innovation.

Is Feminist Identity Beneficial for Women’s Career Aspirations? Examining Feminist Identity Profiles

Using latent profile analysis, we examined whether different feminist identity profiles are differentially related to career-related cognitions among women. We identified profiles of feminist identity based on feminist attitudes, feminist self-identification, and participation in feminist activism. In addition, we examined whether the profiles are differentially related to women’s career aspirations, anticipated family-interference-with-work, and willingness to compromise career for family. In Study 1, three profiles of feminist identity (Non-labeler, Passive feminist, and Active feminist) emerged from responses of 282 female undergraduate and graduate students ( Mage = 20.47). In Study 2, three profiles of feminist identity (Non-feminist, Non-labeler, and Active feminist) emerged from responses of 490 adults recruited from Mechanical Turk ( Mage = 38.62). Results showed that the profiles characterized by stronger feminist self-identification were more positively related to women’s career-related cognitions than the profiles characterized by weaker feminist self-identification. Moreover, the profiles characterized by stronger participation in feminist activism were more positively associated with career-related cognitions. These findings suggest a potential benefit of feminist identity and participation in feminist activism for women’s career aspirations.

Different Effects of Supervisor Positive and Negative Feedback on Subordinate In-Role and Extra-Role Performance: The Moderating Role of Regulatory Focus

As an important tool for supervisors to intervene subordinates’ work and influence their performance, supervisor feedback has gradually become a new academic research hotspot. In this study, we build and verify a theoretical model to explore the different effects of supervisor positive and negative feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance, and the moderating role of regulatory focus in these relationships. With data from pairing samples of 403 Chinese employees and their direct supervisors, the results indicate that supervisor positive feedback is positively related to subordinate in-role and extra-role performance. Supervisor negative feedback is positively related to subordinate in-role performance and negatively related to subordinate extra-role performance. Regulatory focus of subordinate can moderate the influence of supervisor positive feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance, but it cannot moderate the influence of supervisor negative feedback on subordinate in-role and extra-role performance. That means when subordinates have promotion focus, the influence of supervisor positive feedback on their in-role performance and extra-role performance was stronger than those with prevention focus. These results further enrich the research on the relationship between supervisor feedback and subordinate performance, especially the different effects of positive and negative feedback from supervisor on subordinate with different regulatory focus. All conclusions from the analyses above not only further verify and develop some previous points on supervisor feedback and subordinate performance, but also derive certain management implications for promoting subordinate in-role and extra-role performance from the perspective of supervisor positive and negative feedback.

Linkage between Leaders’ Behaviour in Performance Management, Organisational Justice and Work Engagement in Public Sector

In the last decade, leaders’ behaviour in performance management has been gaining increasing attention, arguing that it is beneficial in terms of improved employee attitudes, behaviour, and performance in the public sector. However, empirical support for such claim is still scant. Given the relevance of work engagement and organisational justice in the public sector and acknowledging a worldwide employee engagement crisis, the paper aims at revealing the linkage between leaders’ behaviour in performance management, organisational justice, and employee engagement in the public sector. In doing this, quantitative data were collected in a survey from employees working in the public sector in Lithuania (299 responses). The findings showed that goal setting and feedback had a significant and positive effect on employee engagement, supporting the theoretical notion that leaders’ behaviour in performance management was crucial in engaging people. As it was expected, goal setting and feedback had a positive effect on organisational justice; meanwhile, organisational justice significantly and positively predicted employee engagement. Turning to the mechanism by which leaders’ behaviour influences work engagement, it seems that organisational justice partly mediated the relationships between goal setting and employee engagement and fully mediated the relationships between feedback and work engagement. These findings affirm that public sector should strive for improving the leaders’ behaviour in performance management as it in turn might impact overall organisational performance.

Does Feedback Seeking Help Safety Performance Improvement? The Role of Consideration of Future Consequence

The purpose of this paper is to examine how feedback seeking impact safety performance through feedback environment and the moderating role of consideration of future consequence. Correlation data were collected from 202 participants in three industries of China. Results indicate that feedback seeking is positively associated with feedback environment and safety performance, the feedback environment mediated the relationship between feedback seeking and safety performance. However, the positive effect of feedback environment on safety performance is more significant when consideration of future consequence is high. Overall, the findings highlight the critical importance of individual features in the research on safety performance. The conclusion is conducive to a more detailed understanding of the antecedents that affect safety performance and provides a new perspective for the improvement of safety performance.

Relationship between feedback environment established by mentor and nurses' career adaptability: A cross-sectional study

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore nurses' feedback seeking, the contextual issues established by mentors and career adaptability in a Chinese context. In addition, this research explored the moderating role of nurses' political skill.

BACKGROUND

Mentors play a direct, important and distinct role in supporting mentees. However, little is known about the relationship between the contextual elements of mentor feedback and nurses' career adaptability.

DESIGN

This study was based on cross-sectional data collected from 303 frontline nurses.

METHOD

SPSS 22.0 was used for correlation and regression analysis, and the SPSS PROCESS macro was used for mediating, moderating and conditional process analysis.

RESULTS

Feedback environment established by the mentor is associated with nurses' feedback-seeking behaviour and career adaptability. The indirect association of feedback environment with career adaptability via feedback seeking is stronger for employees with high political skill than those with low political skill.

CONCLUSION

When mentors create a suitable context for feedback, nurses' career adaptability can be enhanced through feedback seeking, especially for nurses with high political skill.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Nurse managers should strive to build a supportive feedback environment established by mentor. It is necessary to improve nurses' political skills.

The Influence of Supervisor Developmental Feedback on Employee Innovative Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Previous scholars have recognized the critical role of supervisors in stimulating employee innovative behavior, although it is still unclear whether and how supervisor developmental feedback impacts employee innovative behavior. To resolve this issue, the present study develops and verifies a moderated mediation model to explore the positive influence of supervisor developmental feedback on employee innovative behavior via creative self-efficacy, as well as the moderating role of a supervisor’s organizational embodiment in this process. Analyses of the multi-time data from 375 employees indicate that supervisor developmental feedback is positively associated with employee innovative behavior via his/her creative self-efficacy. Moreover, a supervisor’s organizational embodiment moderates the influence of supervisor developmental feedback on employee creative self-efficacy and the mediating role of creative self-efficacy. From these analyses, the present study not only further develops several views of pervious research in the field of supervisor feedback and employee innovation, but also provides a potential managerial way to promote employee innovative behavior from the perspective of supervisor feedback.

Emotional Labor and Occupational Well-Being: Latent Profile Transition Analysis Approach

This study used the latent profile transition analysis (LPTA) to analyze whether emotional labor profiles change across time and how these profiles relate to occupational well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, quality of work life, psychological distress, and work-family conflict). A total of 155 full-time Chinese employees completed the questionnaire survey at two time points. Three latent profiles were identified at Time 1 and the same profiles were replicated at Time 2. We determined that the majority of the participants retained the original profiles. Lastly, occupational well-being differed significantly across the identified profiles. The limitations and implications of this study were also provided.

Fuzzy Profiles

Person-centered approaches to organizational scholarship can provide critical insights into how sets of related constructs uniquely combine to predict outcomes. Within micro topics, scholars have begun to embrace the use of latent profile analysis (LPA), identifying constellations of constructs related to organizational commitment, turnover intentions, emotional labor, recovery, and well-being, to name a few. Conversely, macro scholars have utilized fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine numerous phenomena, such as acquisitions and business strategies, as configurations of explanatory conditions associated with firm-level outcomes. What remains unclear, however, is the extent to which these two approaches deliver similar versus unique insights when applied to the same topic. In this paper, we offer an overview of the ways these two methods converge and diverge, and provide an empirical demonstration by applying both LPA and fsQCA to examine a multidimensional personality construct—core self-evaluations (CSE)—in relation to job satisfaction. In so doing, we offer guidance for scholars who are either choosing between these two methods, or are seeking to use the two methods in a complementary, theory-building manner.