consultants Charles (Charlie) Seashore and Edith (Edie) Seashore. Charlie and Edie, along with. Gerald Weinberg, wrote a
Viewing Feedback
Viewing Feedback through Individual, Interpersonal, and Social Systems
Joan R. Goppelt, Keith W. Ray
July 2005
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Viewing Feedback through Individual, Interpersonal, and Social Systems This paper explores what inoculates individual, interpersonal, and social systems from feedback. While most people will admit that feedback provides information for learning and growth, they will just as quickly admit they themselves are not always active seekers of such information. To guide our investigation of current research on feedback, we interviewed OD consultants Charles (Charlie) Seashore and Edith (Edie) Seashore. Charlie and Edie, along with Gerald Weinberg, wrote a book on feedback (Seashore, Seashore, & Weinberg, 1997) and have spent much of their careers working with clients to understand and effectively use feedback. This paper integrates the interview and current literature to create a conversation on feedback and systems. Topics explored include: a) feedback-seeking behavior in organizations, b) self-efficacy and feedback, c) environment and context for feedback, d) balancing power and control for receiver and sender, e) nature of relationships and feedback, and f) political and cultural influences. We used our own practice, along with the Seashores’, to search for theories and research to strengthen our understanding of feedback with individuals and within organizations.
Individual System and Feedback
Q: What question, if you had the answer to, would satisfy your curiosity about feedback?
Edie: What in our socialization process has made it so difficult for us to use this as an educational opportunity, as an individual and within organizations? What has made it so difficult within organizations to have it integrated within the systems - to give each other
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feedback constantly to become more effective? For me the question is – where does it all begin that we get hung up on the whole idea of feedback?
Charlie: There is an old saying that goes “how come there are so many more horses-asses than there are horses?” Then related to your question: “How come so much more feedback is given than is received?” My observation is that feedback becomes less sought after as one’s status goes up. Professionals, doctors, lawyers, OD consultants, are the least likely to receive feedback.
Edie: We tried to institute a peer review with the work we do at the National Training Labs – Ouch!
Q: What keeps people from receiving feedback?
Charlie: I have some ideas of why this is. Feedback may well increase the chaos and the complexity issues for the person receiving. I’m much more interested in the difficultly people have for asking for, getting, and receiving feedback than I am in the problems of sending it.
The feedback cycle is really in the hands of the receiver. The receiver is the person who determines the best conditions why, when, and where and therefore is going to be in control of receptivity as opposed to defensiveness. The defensiveness is one major factor in distorting feedback.
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Edie: I think that is why we can’t get people seeing it as a valuable resource. Even though I talk about it and I think it is valuable, I’m part of the problem. I can’t say I use it a great deal. I’m always fascinated by seeing what feedback the world out there would give me if I ask for it. I’m always fascinated about how little I know about what is going on out there about me. Our colleague has a saying that “everybody has a book being written about them but they are the last to know about it”.
Focusing on the receiver may be key in understanding what prevents feedback from occurring. Adams notes that research is scare on feedback giving behaviors, with more research on the response to feedback (Adams, 2005). Ashford on the other hand, says that over the past twenty years, much has been learned about the core building blocks of feedback seeking behavior with further investigation needed in many areas (Ashford, Blatt, & VandeWalle, 2003). Several studies have suggested that efficacy beliefs facilitate integration and effective use of complex information. This implies a correlation between the self-efficacy and the chaos or complexity within the receiver that Charlie mentions. People with high self-efficacy are able to learn more from feedback and better translate their learning into improved performance (Brown, Ganesan, & Challagalla, 2001). People are often motivated to protect and defend their egos. Threats to their egos will cause reflexive self-protection behavior. If the threat is be in the form of feedback, then the individual may avoid, distort, or discount the feedback(Ashford et al., 2003). Research shows that people seek feedback less when they are trying to manage their image. Those who have most
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to lose, will seek it even less. For example, one study found that individuals, who had the most tenure and expertise, were less likely to seek feedback.
Summary of Feedback-Seeking Research Ashford and her colleagues provide a summary of twenty years of research on feedbackseeking behavior in organizations and identify several growth areas for future research (Ashford et al., 2003). Figure 1.0 summarizes the key connections and correlations using a casual-loop diagram. Connections between variables are denoted by directional lines. The “+” denotes a positive correlation – in that an increase in one variable results in an increase in the other. The ““ denotes a negative correlation – in that an increase in one results in a decrease in the other. The “?” notes where research is inconclusive on the correlation. Three primary motives underlie feedback seeking: a) instrumental motive – to achieve a goal or perform well, b) ego-based motive – to defend or enhance one’s ego, and c) image-based motive – to protect or enhance the impressions that others hold of one (Ashford et al., 2003, p. 777). There has been a call to researchers to move beyond the individual factors and focus on the context in which feedback seeking takes place. Some of the factors situated in the context or feedback environment are also summarized in Figure 1.0. Most research attempts to isolate a handful of variables. This summary diagram begins to unveil the complexity and interconnectedness of the influences on feedback-seeking. It appears that the whole system needs to remain in view in order to truly inform.
