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.