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

Risky business: medical students' feedback-seeking behaviours: a mixed methods study

There are differing views on how learners' feedback-seeking behaviours (FSB) develop during training. With globalisation has come medical student migration and programme internationalisation. Western-derived educational practices may prove challenging for diverse learner populations. Exploring undergraduate activity using a model of FSB may give insight into how FSB evolves and the influence of situational factors, such as nationality and site of study. Our findings seek to inform medical school processes that support feedback literacy. Using a mixed methods approach, we collected questionnaire and interview data from final-year medical students in Ireland, Bahrain, and Malaysia. A validated questionnaire investigated relationships with FSB and goal orientation, leadership style preference, and perceived costs and benefits. Interviews with the same student population explored their FSB experiences in clinical practice, qualitatively, enriching this data. The data were integrated using the 'following the thread' technique. Three hundred and twenty-five of a total of 514 completed questionnaires and 57 interviews were analysed. Learning goal orientation (LGO), instrumental leadership and supportive leadership related positively to perceived feedback benefits (0.23, 0.2, and 0.31, respectively, p < 0.05). Perceived feedback benefits are related positively to feedback monitoring and inquiry (0.13 and 0.38, respectively, p < 0.05). The personal cost of feedback is unsupported in quantitative data, but was a strong theme in interviews, as was feedback avoidance, peer feedback, and unsupportive learning environment. No differences were observed across sub-groups based on gender, study site, or student nationality. Integrated analysis describes FSB: avoiding 'unsafe' feedback (first, do no harm) and overcoming barriers (beat the system) and goal-centred curation (shop around) to optimise benefits. Diverse medical students across three continents undertake FSB with careful navigation, as a valued but risky business, that is highly contextualised. Promoting a constructive FSB is complex. Overcoming outdated theory and practices on the wards remains a challenge to psychologically safe, learner-centred feedback.

How and when team-member exchange influences knowledge hiding behaviors: A moderated dual-pathway model

Purpose

This study explored the influence of team member exchange on employees' knowledge hiding behaviors via job embeddedness and work alienation, with learning goal orientation acting as the boundary condition.

Method

ology: This study adopted a quantitative multi-study research methodology to validate the proposed hypotheses, combining a time-lagged field study with 459 in-service employees and a scenario-based experiment with 128 university students at a northern university in China.

Findings

In Study 1 (field study), team-member exchange was negatively associated with knowledge hiding, and job embeddedness and work alienation mediated this relationship. Perceptions of learning goal orientation can amplify the effect of team-member exchange on job embeddedness and work alienation, which in turn reduces knowledge hiding behaviors. A subsequent experiment (Study 2) almost replicated and supported these findings, but work alienation did not play a role as an intermediary in the relationship between team member exchange and knowledge hiding behavior.

Practical implications

Managers should stimulate social exchanges among team members to inhibit knowledge hiding behaviors and prioritize individuals exhibiting higher learning goal orientations when deciding whom to hire.

Originality

This research identifies and rationalizes how (underlying mechanisms) and when (contingencies) team-member exchange can make a difference in employees' knowledge hiding behaviors, expanding and advancing further research on the knowledge hiding phenomenon from a team perspective.

Dimensionalized goal orientation, innovation climate, and knowledge sharing behavior in higher education research teams

Knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) in the work process is governed by achievement goals and organizational environments. It is of great value to focus on whether achievement goal orientation can effectively predict the employees knowledge sharing in the context of team innovation climate. On the basis of the data from 29 scientific research teams in China's higher education, a multi-layer linear model is constructed to investigate the cross-level relationship. The study finds that learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance proof orientation (PPO) contribute to knowledge sharing, performance avoidance orientation (PAO) tends to be knowledge hiding, and their political skills (PS) consolidate the connections. Team innovation climate not only promotes knowledge sharing behavior, but also activates the traits related to individuals' shared behavior in performance proof orientation, which has enhanced the relationship between achievement goal orientation and knowledge sharing, but has no effect on learning goal orientation and performance avoidance orientation.

Transforming Passive Employee Engagement Into Active Engagement: Supervisor Development Feedback Valences on Feedback-Seeking Behavior

Employees' feedback-seeking behavior is an important way to develop and maintain self-awareness and interpersonal acuity, reduce uncertainty, boost creativity and improve innovative behavior and performance. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the new normal, supervisor feedback and employees feedback-seeking has an increasingly important impact on team creativity and team innovation performance.In the practice of organizational management, there is frequently a "feedback vacuum" between managers and employees. There is increasing research on feedback-seeking behavior in the field of OBHRM. This paper is the first to evaluate the impact of work meaning and positive attributions on workers' feedback-seeking behavior, and the cross-level effects of supervisor development feedback including variable valence. The paper analyzes supervisor-employee paired data from 158 supervisors and 659 employees using multi-source, multi-temporal data to draw the following conclusions: (1) Positive supervisor development feedback has a significant cross-level positive effect on employee feedback-seeking behavior, whereas negative supervisor development feedback does not affect employee feedback-seeking behavior; (2) Work meaningfulness mediates the cross-level relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors, whereas negative supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors do not; (3) Positive attributions positively moderate the relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; while positively moderating the relationship between negative supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; (4) Positive attributions have a moderating effect on supervisor development feedback that influences the indirect relationship to feedback-seeking behavior by work meaningfulness.

Beat People but Not Face: The Role of Perceived Face Threat in the Influence of Abusive Supervision on Employee Feedback Seeking

One of the purposes for superiors to abuse subordinates is to obtain a positive response from subordinates by conveying a negative attitude. However, abusive behavior cannot guarantee positive behaviors due to the differences in subordinates' characteristics, such as feedback seeking. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study explores the relationship between abusive supervision by superiors and feedback seeking by subordinates in East Asian cultures. Questionnaires were collected from multiple time points and multiple sources. Datum analysis was performed on 318 paired questionnaires between employees and direct supervisors. The results showed that: (1) Employees' perceived face threat has a mediating effect on the relationship between abusive supervision and feedback seeking. (2) Self-affirmation of subordinates positively moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and perceived face threat. (3) Self-handicapping of subordinates positively moderates the relationship between perceived face threat and feedback seeking. This not only explains the mechanism of perceived face threat in the influence of abusive supervision on employees' feedback-seeking behavior, but also reveals the boundary effect of employees' self-affirmation and self-handicapping characteristics in it, which expands the theoretical explanation framework of the influence of abusive supervision on employees' feedback-seeking behavior and also provides new ideas for managers to better implement management in the organization.

The dark and bright side of laissez-faire leadership: Does subordinates’ goal orientation make a difference?

Laissez-faire leadership is universally considered to be the most ineffective leadership style. However, a few recent studies revealed that laissez-faire leadership may have modest or even significant positive influence on subordinates’ work outcomes. To explain the inconsistent findings of laissez-faire leadership studies, the current study draws on stress theory and achievement goal theory to examine the boundary conditions and mechanisms underlying the impact of laissez-faire leadership on subordinates, cognitive appraisal and subsequent performance. Results from an experience sampling study of 68 supervisor-subordinate dyads that completed daily surveys over 10 consecutive work days indicated that: (1) when subordinates’ learning goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and hindrance appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates’ performance via subordinates’ hindrance appraisal will be negative; and (2) when subordinates’ performance-prove or performance-avoid goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and challenge appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates’ performance via subordinates’ challenge appraisal will be positive. This study found the double-edged sword effect of laissez-faire leadership at within-person level, which helps integrate inconsistent views in previous studies and explore the impact of laissez-faire leadership from a more nuanced and balanced perspective.

Showing commitment or incompetence? When and how newcomers' information seeking elevates (degrades) task-related outcomes

To date, empirical research exploring the complex mechanisms of when and how information seeking from supervisor affects newcomers' task-related outcomes remains in its infancy. With a sample of 394 newcomers and their supervisors, drawing on the conservation of resources theory and professional image construction theory, we proposed and confirmed two paradoxical paths regarding perceptions of professional image construction – concern about impairing competence-image and confidence in improving commitment-image – that connect newcomers' information seeking from supervisor with their emotional exhaustion during socialization and ultimately can elevate and degrade their task-related outcomes, respectively. In addition, we found that supervisors' favorable feedback weakened the relationship between information seeking from supervisor and competence-image impairment concern, whereas it strengthened the linkage between information seeking and commitment-image improvement confidence. This study thus provides a more comprehensive picture for scholars and practitioners.

Learning leadership and feedback seeking behavior: Leadership that spurs feedback seeking

Lifelong learning is crucial for professionals to continuously develop and update their knowledge and skills, and for organizations to create and sustain competitive advantage. In this regard, feedback seeking is a powerful vehicle to gain new knowledge and insights in one's development and performance. The current research dives deeper in the concept of feedback seeking by investigating the act and use of feedback as well as multiple feedback seeking methods. Leadership as a contextual factor can affect employees' feedback seeking behavior. As such, this study also explores the role of learning leadership for feedback seeking. Learning leadership supports, facilitates and encourages employees' professional development. To address these aims, two independent studies were conducted. Study 1 was a quantitative, survey study that investigated the direct relationship between learning leadership and (the act and use of) feedback seeking. Study 2 was a qualitative, interview study that explored which concrete learning leadership behaviors were linked to different methods of feedback seeking. The findings confirmed the pivotal role of leaders in employees' feedback seeking behavior and provided an overview of concrete learning leadership behaviors.

How job complexity fosters employee creativity: a contextualized growth perspective and the mechanism of feedback-seeking

Purpose

Drawing on the work design growth model (WDGM), this paper aims to explore the relationship between job complexity and employee creativity through feedback-seeking and the moderating effect of team leaders with a growth creative mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used an online survey to test the hypotheses. Data was collected in three waves from 74 supervisors and 349 paired employees in China.

Findings

Job complexity had a positive association with employees’ feedback-seeking, which further linked to employee creativity. This indirect effect was stronger in work teams with leaders endorsing a growth creative mindset.

Practical implications

Job complexity has become prevalent in organizations today. Taking daily complexity as a resource for nurturing employee creativity may balance organizations’ costs on formal training and give them more initiatives in long-term development. In addition, as the growth creative mindset is relatively easy to assess and change, it may bring insights in terms of creativity development.

Originality/value

By empirically testing the behavioural mechanism of WDGM, the learning and development perspective of work design offers a new explanation of the relationship between job complexity and employee creativity. The authors further extend WDGM by identifying leaders’ growth creative mindset to be a boundary condition.

Employees' feedback-seeking strategies and perceptions of abusive supervision

I investigated the relationship between the strategies (inquiry and monitoring) employees use in the context of feedback-seeking behavior (FSB), and their perception of abusive supervision. Participants were 187 employees with various occupations, from whom survey data were collected in two waves. Empirical results indicate that inquiry FSB was negatively related to the perception of abusive supervision, whereas monitoring FSB was positively related to the perception of abusive supervision. Many studies have shown that FSB positively influences employees. However, I found that FSB does not necessarily benefit supervisors; rather, the strategies used need to be considered in examining the outcomes of FSB. My findings enrich the literature on subordinate-related predictors of abusive supervision, which have received relatively little prior research attention.

Moderating role of power distance in the relationship between leader-leader exchange (LLX) and knowledge sharing: is feedback-seeking behavior a missing link?

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the effect of leader-leader exchange (LLX) on knowledge sharing through feedback-seeking behavior. The study also explores the moderating role of power distance.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional data of 290 knowledge workers from manufacturing and service firms in India were taken as a sample of the study. The hypotheses were tested using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression.

Findings

The results showed that LLX positively affects knowledge sharing and feedback-seeking behavior mediates the relationship between LLX and knowledge sharing. Moreover, power distance does not moderate the relationship between LLX and knowledge sharing.

Originality/value

The present study one of its kind explores the relationship between LLX, feedback-seeking behavior, knowledge sharing and power distance.

Feedback seeking and subjective well-being at work: The role of career adaptability and person-environment fit

BACKGROUND: With the acceleration of the pace of life and the fierce competition for talents, role Conflicts and pressures caused by work and family will not only affect employees’ performance, but also reduce their job satisfaction and subjective well-being. So, as an important field for individuals, workplace factor also has an important impact on individual subjective well-being. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we explored the relationship between feedback seeking and subjective well-being and the role of career adaptability and P-E fit in this process. METHODS: In this study, we used a moderated mediation approach to test how employee’s workplace feedback seeking affect their subjective well-being and used a quantitative survey to measure these variables. RESULTS: The results showed that both feedback monitoring and feedback inquiry ultimately improve subjective well-being through positive prediction of career adaptability. In addition, we found the moderation effect of P-E fit, when P-E fit is low, the relationship between feedback seeking and career adaptability becomes stronger. CONCLUSIONS: As the results, feedback seeking has a positive impact on employees’ subjective well-being by increasing their career adaptability. In workplace, employees can actively seek for two kinds of feedback to improve their career adaptability and thus improve their well-being.

Evaluating the Impact of Positive Implicit Followership towards Employees’ Feedback-Seeking: Based on the Social Information Processing Perspective

Amid the growth of COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs are facing greater uncertainties and pressures to survive because even though they are efficiently managed, their human resource organizations lack a large number of resources and a well-developed training system to foster the sustainable development of employees. Employees are important assets of the company, and their continuous growth and development are keys to the survival of the company. In this context, the individual worker’s assessment of his or her job role and how the assessments drive the employee to exhibit an appropriate proactive work behavior are particularly important. Previous research has typically focused on how organizations and leaders perceive employees but has rarely explored employees’ own implicit followership cognitive states. This study integrates the traits of positive implicit followership of employees, namely, industry trait, enthusiasm trait, and good citizen trait, with perceived supervisor support (PSS) and feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) into one research framework. In this study, 207 valid questionnaires were collected by using offline convenience sampling, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted. The results show that employees’ industry traits directly and positively influence FSB, while enthusiasm traits and good citizen traits have no direct effect on promoting FSB. In addition, industry trait, enthusiasm trait, and good citizen trait significantly and positively influence PSS, with good citizen trait having the greatest positive effect on PSS. Furthermore, PSS has a significant positive effect on FSB. Finally, PSS was found to mediate between industry traits and FSB. Corresponding to the results of the study, the actions shaping employees’ positive implicit followership cognition and forming a good supportive atmosphere to promote employees’ performance of more feedback-seeking behaviors are recommended.

How Servant Leadership Sparks Feedback-Seeking Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Drawing upon social information processing theory, we propose that moqi with supervisors mediates the relationship between servant leadership and follower feedback-seeking behavior. Subordinates’ traditionality plays a moderating role in this process. A total of 440 Chinese working adults responded to the two-wave questionnaire survey in paper and pencil forms. Correlation analyses, mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis was performed through R and SPSS PROCESS Macro. The results revealed that servant leadership positively correlates with followers’ feedback-seeking behavior via moqi with supervisors. Moreover, these indirect effects of servant leadership were moderated by traditionality, such that servant leadership had weaker relations with feedback-seeking behavior when traditionality was higher (vs. lower). Theoretical contributions and practical implications, limitations and suggestions for further study were discussed.

Why Do I Seek Negative Feedback? Assessment Orientation, Self-Criticism, and Negative Feedback-Seeking

Negative feedback plays an important role in employee performance improvement, yet little research has specifically examined the motivational factor that drives employees to seek negative feedback. Drawing from the regulatory mode theory, we propose that assessment orientation could increase negative feedback-seeking by triggering individual self-criticism and participative leadership could enhance this effect. Results from a two-wave lagged survey study obtained from 216 Chinese employees suggested that assessment orientation is positively correlated with negative feedback-seeking via the mediating role of self-criticism. Moreover, the positive effect of assessment orientation on self-criticism and the positive indirect effect of assessment orientation on negative feedback-seeking via self-criticism are both stronger when participative leadership is higher. These results enrich the literature on feedback-seeking and regulatory mode and are useful for increasing employee negative feedback-seeking behavior in the organization.

Perceived Organizational Support and Work Engagement of First-Line Managers in Healthcare - The Mediation Role of Feedback Seeking Behavior

BACKGROUND

First-line managers play a significant role in the management system of a health-care organization because they provide support and bridge for both senior management and their subordinates. Their work engagement becomes the foundation of facility functioning, encompassing both meeting organizational goals and the patient-centered care approach, but also meeting the expectations and needs of subordinate staff. The purpose of our study is to examine the relationship between perceived organizational support and work engagement of first-line health-care managers and the deeper mechanisms in the form of feedback seeking behavior that may positively influence this relationship.

METHODS

Data collection was carried out in the form of a questionnaire survey in the period February 2021. Respondents were first-level medical managers from different types of clinical areas and from all Slovak hospitals (221). The PLS-SEM method was used to analyze paths between variables and to analyze direct and indirect effects using SmartPLS 3.3 software.

RESULTS

The findings indicate a positive association of perceived organizational support and work engagement. Hypotheses about the mediation of the two components of feedback seeking behavior (monitoring and inquiring) have support in both their separate and joint mediation. At the same time, in joint mediation, a larger part of the indirect effect is transmitted by the feedback seeking behavior inquiring and thus represents a possible direction of interest for the top management of hospitals to strengthen the work engagement of their first-level managers not only for the purpose of their higher performance, but also of their job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Perceived organizational support enhances the work engagement of first-line managers. However, the total effect is significantly higher when feedback seeking behavior is involved not only in monitoring, but especially in inquiring.

Subordinates' performance-prove goal orientation and their perception of abusive supervision

I investigated the relationship between subordinates' performanceprove goal orientation and their perception of abusive supervision, and examined whether feedback-seeking behavior toward supervisors mediated this link. I collected data using a three-wave survey of 173 employees who were working in a variety of occupations in Taiwan. Empirical results indicate that when subordinates had a performanceprove goal orientation, their perception of abusive supervision was partially decreased through their feedback-seeking behavior toward supervisors. Specifically, those employees with a higher (vs. lower) performance-prove goal orientation sought more feedback from supervisors and, thus, perceived abusive supervision to a lesser degree. These findings contribute to the literature on the antecedents of abusive supervision in terms of subordinate-related factors. Managerial implications are proposed to enable employees to be aware of how their job performance is understood and viewed by their supervisors.

Feedback-Seeking Behavior in Organizations: A Meta-Analysis and Systematical Review of Longitudinal Studies

Based on the Job Demands-Resources theory, this meta-analysis investigates the role of resources in predicting feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) over time. We also examine the relationship between FSB and its outcomes from a systematic review perspective. The eligibility criteria were: (a) to measure feedback-seeking behavior, (b) to have a longitudinal design, and (c) to have employees as target groups. Thirteen studies met these criteria (Ntotal= 1,527). We combined the meta-analysis procedures and structural equation modeling (metaSEM) and used the systematic review. The methodological quality of the available longitudinal studies is assessed. Our findings indicated that job resources predict future feedback-seeking behavior and between feedback-seeking behavior and personal resources is significant relationship. More research is needed to clarify the reciprocal relationships between personal resources and feedback-seeking behavior and the influences of feedback-seeking behavior on 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.

The role of leadership and engagement in call center performance: answering the call in Peru

Purpose

To examine the effects of leadership style on in-role performance through feedback seeking behavior (FSB) and engagement using the job demands resource theory (JD-R).

Design/methodology/approach

The sample consisted of 152 employees working in a Peruvian call center. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

Transformational leadership was significantly related to in-role performance, with FSB and engagement sequentially mediating the relationship.

Originality/value

This study highlights the motivational processes that can lead to employee engagement and performance within a call center and identifies the contribution of feedback seeking within this environment.

Thwarted enthusiasm: effects of workplace incivility on newcomer proactive behaviors

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between supervisor and coworkers’ workplace incivility and newcomer proactive behaviors. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors examined resource depletion as a mediator and newcomer proactive personality, as well as their current organizational tenure as moderators of the relationship between workplace incivility toward newcomers and their proactive behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

A time-lagged research design was used to test hypotheses with data covering 322 newcomers and their immediate supervisors in two subsidiaries of a large food processing company in China. Regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS is used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results show that workplace incivility toward newcomers is negatively related to their proactive behaviors. This relationship is mediated by resource depletion. Furthermore, newcomers’ proactive personality moderates the relationship between workplace incivility and resource depletion. Moreover, both the direct effect of workplace incivility on resource depletion and its indirect effect on newcomer proactive behaviors are moderated by the combination of newcomer proactive personality and their current organizational tenure.

Originality/value

Drawing on COR theory, a theoretical framework is constructed that specifies the process through which workplace incivility affects proactive behaviors to expand collective understandings of workplace incivility in the newcomer context. Furthermore, the boundary conditions of the underlying process are investigated, which further enhances the contribution of this paper to the extant literature on workplace incivility.

Meaningful feedback through a sociocultural lens

This AMEE guide provides a framework and practical strategies for teachers, learners and institutions to promote meaningful feedback conversations that emphasise performance improvement and professional growth. Recommended strategies are based on recent feedback research and literature, which emphasise the sociocultural nature of these complex interactions. We use key concepts from three theories as the underpinnings of the recommended strategies: sociocultural, politeness and self-determination theories. We view the content and impact of feedback conversations through the perspective of learners, teachers and institutions, always focussing on learner growth. The guide emphasises the role of teachers in forming educational alliances with their learners, setting a safe learning climate, fostering self-awareness about their performance, engaging with learners in informed self-assessment and reflection, and co-creating the learning environment and learning opportunities with their learners. We highlight the role of institutions in enhancing the feedback culture by encouraging a growth mind-set and a learning goal-orientation. Practical advice is provided on techniques and strategies that can be used and applied by learners, teachers and institutions to effectively foster all these elements. Finally, we highlight throughout the critical importance of congruence between the three levels of culture: unwritten values, espoused values and day to day behaviours.

How does abusive supervision restrict employees’ feedback-seeking behavior?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the restrictive effect of abusive supervision on employees’ feedback-seeking behavior (FSB) through organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE) and the moderation of this mediation by leader-member exchange (LMX).

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted hierarchical regression and path analysis to analyze the 312 manager–employee dyads data gathered from five companies in China.

Findings

The authors found that abusive supervision had a detrimental effect on employee FSB, partially through OBSE, and that both the direct and indirect effects were moderated by LMX.

Practical implications

Organizations should seek to inhibit supervisors’ abusive behavior in the workplace. Supervisors should not occasionally mistreat subordinates with whom they have a good relationship.

Originality/value

This study reveals the underlying influence mechanism of abusive supervision on employee FSB using the self-concept theory and suggests that OBSE is critical in determining how abusive supervision influences employee FSB. Furthermore, LMX quality (especially high LMX) moderates the above mediation.

Signaling trustworthiness: The effect of leader humor on feedback-seeking behavior

Given its capacity to cultivate a range of positive outcomes in the workplace, humor has been recognized as a valuable tool for leadership purposes. However, the theoretical understanding of leader humor remains relatively limited and the mechanism through which it influences follower outcomes has not been clearly identified. Drawing on signaling theory, we developed and empirically tested a model which delineates the relationship between leader humor and a specific follower behavior - proactive feedback seeking. We collected data from 304 employees and their respective leaders working in a large Canadian retail organization. Results of our analyses indicate that leader humor can impact subordinate feedback-seeking behavior via its influence on subordinates' affect-based and cognition-based trust in the leader.

'I did not check if the teacher gave feedback': a qualitative analysis of Taiwanese postgraduate year 1 trainees' talk around e-portfolio feedback-seeking behaviours

OBJECTIVES

Despite feedback being an extensively researched and essential component of teaching and learning, there is a paucity of research examining feedback within a medical education e-portfolio setting including feedback-seeking behaviours (FSBs). FSBs can be understood within a cost-value perspective. The objective of this research is to explore the factors that influence postgraduate year 1 (PGY1) trainee doctors' FSBs via e-portfolios.

SETTING

Postgraduate education provision in the largest teaching hospital in Taiwan.

PARTICIPANTS

Seventy-one PGY1s (66% male).

METHODS

A qualitative semistructured one-to-one interview method was adopted. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, anonymised and checked for completeness. Data were analysed inductively via thematic framework analysis and deductively informed using FSB theory. The process comprised data familiarisation, identification of the themes, charting and data interpretation.

RESULTS

Two main themes of FSB related and e-portfolio related were identified. We present the theme focussing on FSB here to which n=32 (22 males, 10 females) of the n=71 participants contributed meaningfully. Subthemes include factors variously affecting PGY1s' positive and negative FSBs via e-portfolios at the individual, process and technological levels. These factors include learner-related (internal values vs social influence, forced reflection); teacher-related (committed educators vs superficial feedback); technology-related (face-saving vs lagging systems; inadequate user-interface) and process-related (delayed feedback, too frequent feedback) factors.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings reveal the complexity of PGY1s' FSBs in an e-portfolio context and the interaction of numerous facilitating and inhibiting factors. Further research is required to understand the range of facilitating and inhibiting factors involved in healthcare learners' FSBs across different learning, social, institutional and national cultural settings.

Goal Orientation: A Review of the Miles Traveled and the Miles to Go

Goal orientation, a theory that originated primarily in the educational and social psychology fields, has emerged in the past two decades as a prominent theory in organizational psychology and organizational behavior. We review the state of affairs for goal orientation research with the following roadmap. First, we discuss the historical roots of goal orientation. Next, we summarize the nomological network of goal orientation and describe the processing frameworks associated with goal orientation factors. We then discuss the crucial role of moderator variables to explain the notable variance found in goal orientation–outcome variable relationships. We next summarize the research findings on the relationship of goal orientation with the proximal mediator and distal outcome variables. We conclude the review with a miles-to-go discussion of several major issues currently faced in goal orientation research.

Ego-Oriented Learners Show Advantage in Retention and Transfer of Balancing Skill

Task-oriented individuals believe capabilities can change and focus on learning, self-reference, mastery, personal improvement, and effort. Ego-oriented individuals believe capabilities are fixed and focus on performance, outcome, other-reference, and personal success. We examined the effects of task and ego orientations on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a balance task. Eighteen acquisition trials with knowledge of results on a 40-s balance task (parallel stance) were performed. Retention and transfer (staggered stance) were administered 24 h later, with three no–knowledge of results trials each. Analyses showed that the high-ego-oriented individuals showed better balance on transfer than the low-ego-oriented ones, suggesting that those who score high in ego might be predisposed to use adaptive strategies to facilitate performance when feedback is withdrawn on learning tests. To test this hypothesis, the second experiment investigated the relationship between knowledge of results and goal orientations. Task, design, and procedure were identical to the first experiment. The analyses indicated that ego-oriented individuals were capable of sustaining balance for a much greater length of time on retention and transfer than task-oriented ones, mainly when knowledge of results was present on acquisition trials. This finding reinforces the advantage of ego over task goal orientation when learning a new motor task.

Linking Empowering Leadership to Task Performance, Taking Charge, and Voice: The Mediating Role of Feedback-Seeking

Drawing upon social exchange theory, the present study focuses on the role of feedback-seeking in linking empowering leadership to task performance, taking charge, and voice. We tested the hypothesized model using data from a sample of 32 supervisors and 197 their immediate subordinates. Performing CFA, SEM, and bootstrapping, the results revealed that: (1) empowering leadership was positively associated with followers’ feedback-seeking; (2) employees’ feedback-seeking was positively correlated with task performance, taking charge, and voice; and (3) employees’ feedback-seeking mediated the positive relationships between empowering leadership and task performance, taking charge, and voice. We make conclusions by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, alongside a discussion of the present limitations and directions for future studies.

Exploring the Role of Self-Motives in Postgraduate Trainees' Feedback-Seeking Behavior in the Clinical Workplace: A Multicenter Study of Workplace-Based Assessments From the United Kingdom

PURPOSE

To explore trainees' feedback-seeking behavior in the postgraduate surgical workplace using a self-motives framework. Self-motives include self-assessment "to obtain accurate information about the self," self-improvement "to improve one's traits, abilities, and skills," self-enhancement "to enhance the favorability of self views," and self-verification "to maintain consistency between one's central self-view and new self-relevant information."

METHOD

This project constituted a further framework analysis of previously obtained qualitative focus group data that originally explored trainees' perceptions and use of workplace-based assessment (WBA). Data were collected from multiple centers in the United Kingdom from 2012 to 2013. Content was analyzed to identify references in the data that reflected the above self-motives and in relation to contextual themes identified from within the data.

RESULTS

Trainees' motivations for seeking feedback broadly fit within a self-motives framework. Trainees' feedback seeking using WBA related to self-enhancement and self-verification, whereas outside WBA trainees reported self-improvement and self-assessment motives. Where trainees perceived WBA represented an opportunity to learn, they described a self-improvement motive toward seeking feedback, whereas when WBA represented an assessment of learning, trainees described tensions between self-enhancement and self-improvement motives.

CONCLUSIONS

Surgical trainees' motivations for seeking feedback can be explained using a conceptual self-motives framework. Trainees need to be motivated to seek accurate informational feedback so they can improve their performance within the clinical workplace. To achieve this, trainees need training; current assessment systems must change to allow trainees to seek such feedback without fear and concern about this information being used as an assessment of learning.