Solving the Emotional Expression Dilemma during Negative Feedback Giving Using Affective Shift

Abstract

<p>Leaders expect their developmental feedback to effectively help employees develop skills and improve performance, yet the effect of developmental feedback on learning remains unclear. While the feedback intervention theory (FIT, Kluger & DeNisi, 1996) suggests that feedback delivery style contains important cues moderating the effect of feedback on learning, little is known about how cues from the feedback giver’s emotional expression influence this relationship. Integrating the FIT with emotion as social information theory, we hypothesized that leaders shifting affective displays from negative to positive significantly enhance the positive effect of developmental feedback on learning via enhanced task learning and reduced intention to quit, relative to leaders shifting affects in the reverse order (from positive to negative) and in steady-state PA or NA. An online experiment manipulating leader affective displays (transitioning from NA to PA vs. transitioning from PA to NA vs. steady-state PA vs. steady-state NA) and negative feedback message (developmental vs. non-developmental) supported our hypotheses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.<br></p>