ServiceFriday: Am I Doing It Right? Employee Feedback Seeking Behavior
Feedback seeking behavior, or FSB, is a proactive way in which employees can seek out feedback from managers and supervisors to improve work performance. Seeking feedback also goes a long way to establish trust among employees and to build solid relationships within an organization. For managers, it is important to understand the factors behind what can increase feedback seeking behavior in employees in order to improve employee engagement, which can result in big rewards in terms of excellent performance and service delivery.
Two studies from the Journal of Service Research examined the feedback seeking behavior of front-line employees and came to the conclusion that when employees feel safe and comfortable with their managers, and when there is a positive work environment in which employees are given the resources and rewards to ask for feedback, higher levels of feedback seeking behavior exist. On a managerial level, it is imperative that leaders “instill confidence in employees that feedback seeking is beneficial, worthwhile, and risk-free. Imparting a sense of value from feedback seeking through social exchange relationships will send a clear and strong signal to employees to engage in FSB. Because FSB entails not only advantages but also potential risks and costs, it is imperative that employees feel reassured through high quality relationships with their supervisors that the benefits of feedback seeking (e.g., achieving certain goals, advancing one’s career, developing new skills) outweigh the costs (e.g., losing face, feeling incompetent).”
The paper also provides evidence that FSB will help achieve a win-win situation for both the employees and the company, as front-line employees who are passionate about feedback-seeking tend to have higher internal rating scores and increased service performance than those who do not. Interestingly enough, employees with the lowest job satisfaction are the very ones that managers should focus on to seek out FSB. “Our findings indicate that not all employees are equally receptive to feedback seeking and that some will benefit more than others. This suggests that managers can prioritize their targets for FSB. Targeting employees who are less satisfied with their jobs will lead to higher frontline employee performance. Managers need to identify employees who have low job satisfaction and encourage them to engage in FSB by developing a positive and strong feedback-seeking climate.”
To access the full article from the Journal of Service Research, visit this link at Sage Journals: https://bit.ly/2vo9lYx (A fee may apply.)