The Dynamic Interplay Between Employees' Feedback-Seeking Strategies and Supervisors' Delivery of Performance Feedback

This article examines the relationship between employees' feedback-seeking behavior and the informal performance feedback they receive from their supervisors. The focus is on those situations in which the employee is performing poorly. The central thesis is that when employees suspect that they are performing poorly, they often use feedback-seeking strategies that tend to minimize the amount of negative performance feedback they receive. Processes operating on both sides of the supervisor-employee interaction are identified as likely contributors to this effect. For the employee, these processes are rooted in a deep-seated motivation to maintain a positive self-esteem, and for the supervisor, they are rooted in an underlying reluctance about giving negative performance feedback.