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Article Excerpt
Employees in organizations seek feedback information to determine 'the correctness and adequacy of behaviours for attaining valued end states' (Ashford, 1986, p. 466). Obtaining information about how knowledgeable others such as supervisors, peers and subordinates evaluate their achievements can also help them develop a sense of competency (VandeWalle, 2003). Extant empirical research has significantly contributed to our understanding of the function of feedback-seeking in adaptation processes (for an overview, see Ashford, Blatt, & VandeWalle, 2003). Notwithstanding, VandeWalle (2003) has recently noted that the picture of many aspects of feedback-seeking behaviour is still incomplete. An important shortcoming is the lack of insight into the role of individual differences in the feedback-seeking process (Herold & Fedor, 1998, 2003; Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). Another limitation is that empirical research has focused primarily on the frequency with which individuals seek feedback. Too little attention has yet been paid to the notion that individual differences or situational antecedents may influence other dimensions of the feedback-seeking process, such as the type of information that employees seek (Miller & Jablin, 1991; VandeWalle, 2003).
The aim of the present study is to address these two shortcomings by using VandeWalle's (2003) goal orientation model of feedback-seeking behaviour to propose that the individual difference of goal orientation influences employees in the type of feedback information they seek. We build theory and test hypotheses predicting that employees with a dominant learning goal orientation (an orientation toward developing competence) seek information that is useful for improving their personal attributes, whereas their counterparts with a dominant performance goal orientation (an orientation toward demonstrating competence) tend to seek information for validating the adequacy of their personal attributes.
Research has identified monitoring and inquiry strategies for seeking feedback (Ashford & Cummings, 1983). People can observe the situation and behaviours of others to collect information about the self (i.e. monitoring strategy) or can directly ask others for feedback information about the self (i.e, inquiry strategy). To be clear about our focal point, this study focuses on the inquiry strategy of feedback seeking by examining how goal orientation determines the type of information that employees seek from knowledgeable others in the surrounding work environment. Below, we first discuss the concept of goal orientation and then develop hypotheses about how distinct goal orientations lead employees to seek different types of information. We test these hypotheses in a field study conducted among 170 medical residents in a Dutch university hospital.
Goal orientations
Based on achievement goal theory and research (e.g. Ames, 1992; Button, Mathieu, & Zajac, 1996; Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Farr, Hofmann, & Ringenbach, 1993; Pintrich, 2000; VandeWalle & Cummings, 1997), VandeWalle (2003) proposes two broad classes of personal goal orientations to influence feedback-seeking behaviour processes: a learning goal orientation and a performance goal orientation. Individuals with a dominant learning goal orientation focus on developing competence by mastering new situations and acquiring new skills, whereas persons with a dominant performance goal orientation focus on demonstrating and validating the adequacy of their competence by seeking favourable judgments and avoiding negative judgments about their achievements (VandeWalle, 2003).
These distinct goal orientations are based on different implicit self-theories that individuals have about their personal attributes (Dweck, 1999; VandeWalle, 2003). Learning-oriented individuals tend to hold an incremental theory reflecting beliefs that self-attributes such as intelligence, skills and abilities are dynamic, malleable entities that can be developed. They believe that effort is an appropriate strategy for developing self-attributes. Especially in challenging situations of task difficulty or task failure, they tend to persist and increase effort in order to achieve ability and personal development. Individuals with a performance orientation tend to hold an entity theory reflecting beliefs that self-attributes are fixed, uncontrollable entities that can hardly be developed. In their view, exerting extra effort and working hard often indicate inadequate levels of competence. Therefore, when facing task difficulty or task failure, performance-oriented individuals tend to withdraw from the task, as they believe that continued effort may draw attention to their competency deficiencies which would conflict with their goal of appearing competent (e.g. Duda, 2001; Dweck, 1999).
Recent research in the achievement goal domain has proposed to bifurcate mastery and performance goal orientations into approach and avoidance versions. That is, individuals with learning-approach goal orientations are assumed to focus on the development of competence through task mastery and gaining new skills, whereas individuals with learning-avoidance goal orientations strive to avoid deterioration, losing their skill, or leaving the task incomplete or un-mastered (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). Likewise, performance-oriented individuals can be motivated either to demonstrate superior competence relative to others and obtain favourable judgments about their achievements (performance-approach goal orientation), or to avoid demonstrating inferior competence relative to others and receiving negative judgments about their achievements (performance-avoidance goal orientation) (e.g. Elliot, 1999; Elliot & Church, 1997; VandeWalle, 1997). As such, approach-oriented individuals tend to pursue beneficial outcomes, whereas avoidance-oriented employees tend to avert detrimental outcomes.
A final point worth noting is that several achievement goal orientations can coexist in a person, so that, for example, trying to develop competency is not necessarily inconsistent with striving to demonstrate competency (cf. Button et al., 1996; Janssen & Van Yperen, 2004; VandeWalle, 1997). Thus, people vary in the extent to which they possess each of the distinct goal orientations. However, following VandeWalle's (2003) goal orientation model, we assume that individuals have a tendency to prefer one particular goal orientation to the others.
Goal orientations and the seeking of different types of information
Employees consider the potential value and cost of feedback seeking when deciding whether they should engage in feedback-seeking behaviour. Regarding the value, empirical research has identified instrumental or expectancy value and impression management value. Instrumental or expectancy value represents the perceived usefulness of feedback information for improving job performance and learning behaviours needed to achieve goals (e.g. Ashford, 1986; VandeWalle & Cummings, 1997; VandeWalle, Ganesan, Challagalla, & Brown, 2000),...
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