Within the workplace, we provide colleagues and team members information (feedback) about their acts in order to help them meet individual, group, and organizational goals.
There are two types of actions about which we provide feedback:
- Job performance
- Work-related behaviour
Job performance involves competency—whether or not an employee is capable of performing specific tasks that have been assigned.
Work-related behaviour involves the way in which an employee performs his or her tasks – whether he or she speaks politely to customers, for example, and works cooperatively with other team members.
Consider that workplace feedback is fairly specific. When we give workplace feedback, we are not commenting on our co-workers’ personalities or private lives, nor are we dwelling on their past errors to punish them. Instead, we respond to those factors that affect out feedback recipient’s work or the work of others so that the recipient can plan for the future.
As we have seen in our case studies, the feedback we read about produced a variety of results. Silence allowed a manager to create her own interpretation of the director’s reaction, which may or may not have been correct. Criticism creates harsh feelings between and employee and a manager. Praise created positive feelings during an employee evaluation, but accomplished nothing more – no reinforcement of the good work performed. What could more effective, constructive feedback have done?