Goal-Related Feedback Seeking, Receiving Goal-Related Feedback, and Internal Work Motivation: A Two-Sample Mediation Study Using Human Service Case Managers

ABSTRACT

Purpose

No known published empirical study in the social work literature has investigated goal-related feedback seeking’s direct or indirect impact on human service case managers. Consequently, this field survey study sought to fill this gap in the extant literature using two different samples of county-based human service case managers across the state of New York.

Method

Four hundred and sixty-three public assistance and 349 child welfare case managers were surveyed in order to test goal-related feedback seeking’s main and receiving goal-related feedback’s mediating effect on internal work motivation.

Results

Data from each sample confirmed both types of effects.

Discussion

As the first to uncover these two sets of findings, this field survey study makes a unique contribution to the social work and feedback seeking literatures.

KEYWORDS:

• Goal-related feedback seeking
• goal-related feedback
• internal work motivation
• human services
• social work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.