Are the Characteristics of Narrative Comments Related to Improvement in Multirater Feedback Ratings Over Time?

Researchers have paid almost no attention to the narrative comments that typically accompany multirater feedback reports despite the fact that both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that feedback recipients devote considerable attention to such comments. The authors examined improvement in upward feedback ratings over a 1-year period for 176 managers as a function of (a) the number of narrative comments each manager received, (b) whether those comments were favorable (vs. unfavorable), and (c) whether the comments were behavior/task focused (vs. trait focused). The authors found that managers who received a small number of unfavorable, behavior/task-focused comments improved more than did other managers, whereas managers who received a large number of unfavorable, behavior/task-focused comments declined more than did other managers.