Published in the Journal of Psychology Reports 2014
Lilford, N.; Caruana, A.; Pitt, L. (2014). Psychological Reports: Measures and Statistics, V114, 1, 126-133. (ISDN 0033-2941).
SUMMARY
Feedback to employees is an important management tool; and the literature demonstrates that it has a positive effect on learning, motivation, and job performance. This study investigates in a non-U.S. context the psychometric properties of the Feedback-Orientation Scale. The data were gathered from a sample of 202 salespersons from a large South African firm in the industrial fuels and lubricants sector. Confirmatory-Factor Analysis provided evidence for the intended dimensionality, reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity of the scale.
Most organizations provide feedback to employees in one way or another. Such feedback might be informal, as when a manager or supervisor casually comments on an individual’s work. However, more frequently, feedback is formal; and typically, it is part of some kind of performance appraisal and re- porting system. Feedback to employees is an important management tool; and most of the literature demonstrates that it has a positive effect on learning, motivation, and performance (Ilgen, Fisher, & Taylor, 1979; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996; London, 2003).
Effective feedback provides an organization’s perspective on the job performance of employees; and it informs them on the progress towards goals, thereby reducing uncertainty, while boosting the self-perceptions of competence and self-confidence among the recipients (Ashford & Cummings, 1983; Bernichon, Cook, & Brown, 2003; London, 2003). Unfortunately, individuals do not all respond to feedback in the same way; and it would therefore be helpful to managers, or those providing feedback, to know beforehand how different people might react.
In an attempt to understand just how individuals might differ in their response to feedback, Linderbaum and Levy (2010) developed the Feedback-Orientation Scale (FOS).
An important consideration in the adoption of a scale by both practitioners and researchers is a body of evidence that shows that the scale performs well in contexts other than those in which it was originally developed. The current study assesses the FOS in a different context, and among a different group of respondents. Firstly, given the salespersons context that will be employed in this study, the importance of feedback in the functioning of an effective salespersons is discussed. The role of a feedback orientation is highlighted; and this is followed by a brief overview of the FOS and its dimensionality. Next, details on the collection of the data from a sample of business-to-business (B2B) salespersons in a large South African firm are described; and the psychometric properties of the scale are presented. Finally, the paper concludes by identifying practical implications, while acknowledging the limitations, and suggesting various avenues for future research.