Digest 32. Why people do (not) seek feedback? The long effect of culture
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Feedback is a control mechanism that helps systems or people to gain information about their performance, to help them improve it and avoid unfavorable and harmful consequences. Hence, organizations try to encourage their managers and employees to give and seek feedback (for managers’ feedback seeking behavior see Digest 24).
People seek feedback or avoid it for different reasons, either to gain useful information, to manage impressions, or to protect their ego. Therefore, there are three motives for feedback-seeking behavior (or lack of it):
Instrumental motive: This motive suggests that employees want to gain information and get feedback on their performance so that they can adjust their behavior, achieve their performance goals, and adapt themselves to their work environment.
Image-defense motive: Employees may not seek feedback to safeguard their social image as feedback seeking may signal the seeker’s ignorance and need for self-relevant information which may be perceived as insecurity. This as a result may distort the confident image of the feedback seeker.
Ego-defense motive: Since performance feedback refers to the self, and it could be positive, reinforcing the good job done, or negative, trying to point out the issues that should be improved, some individuals may try to avoid feedback seeking altogether to protect their ego as negative feedback would hurt them.
These motives are stronger or weaker in individuals based on their individual characteristics (look at Digest 9 for more information). But they could also depend on how people are socialized to the work environment and to their culture more generally.
How do motives impact feedback seeking in different cultures?
To answer this question, Macdonald and colleagues (2013) conducted a study with 72 and 64 individuals who were born and raised in Canada and China respectively. These participants were all full-time workers. In this study, participants were asked questions regarding their motivation for seeking feedback on their performance, then participants were provided with eight unique scenarios, four practice scenarios and four duplicate ones for reliability checks. Each of the situations presented to the respondents had one of the conditions of the following three pieces of information: 1) The feedback provided in the scenario was expected to be a) positive or b) negative; 2) the feedback was to be given by a) the manager or b) the peer; and 3) the feedback was expected to be provided in a) private or b) public. After each scenario, participants were asked about the likelihood of seeking feedback in each of those situations.
Macdonald and colleagues (2013) found that Canadians, being individualist and distinguishing themselves through success and self-esteem, have higher instrumental and ego-defense motives for seeking feedback in comparison to Chinese participants who are collectivists, de-emphasize boasting and value modesty and humility. To maintain their self-esteem, Canadians with higher ego-defense motives prefer positive feedback over negative feedback.
Moreover, they found that Chinese workers have higher image-defense motive for seeking feedback in comparison to Canadian participants. This is due to the high-power distance and that Chinese may consider seeking feedback as inappropriate since it may insinuate a doubt about their ineffectiveness. This also results in Chinese workers to prefer seeking feedback from their peers rather than their managers; and if they seek feedback from their managers, they prefer to do it privately.
Organizational implications
When working with employees from different cultures, the following recommendations may be useful for managers or expatriates:
Employees from different cultures (collectivistic vs. individualistic) have different motives for seeking or not seeking feedback and when appointed to other countries with different cultures, expatriates/managers need to take such differences into consideration. For more information on effects of cultural differences on feedback check out Digest 26 and Digest 12.
Employees’ reluctance in seeking feedback in collectivistic cultures should not be mistaken for their lack of initiative; it is simply a cultural trait. Having lower instrumental and ego-defense, and higher image-defense motives, they will be less active in seeking feedback as they might find it rude to their manager. To promote feedback seeking behavior check out Digest 23.
Managers need to show sensitivity toward the needs of employees’ culture. This would create a trusting and positive relationship between managers and these employees.
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Reference: Macdonald, H. A., Sulsky, L. M., Spence, J. R., & Brown, D. J. (2013). Cultural differences in the motivation to seek performance feedback: A comparative policy-capturing study. Human Performance, 26, 211–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2013.795572