Exploring the dimensionality of positive and negative performance feedback

Positive and negative performance feedback may best be examined not as opposite ends of a single continuum, but as two separate, unique constructs, each with its own dimensional structure. This study explores the nature of these distinct structures by applying multidimensional scaling techniques to performance feedback messages given in organizational settings. The results indicate that positive feedback messages are characterized by two underlying dimensions (no instruction/praise versus instruction/guidance; process versus product focus), and that negative messages reflect a four‐dimensional structure (explicit versus ambiguous; destructive versus constructive criticism; high versus low knowledge of performance conditions; mixed/inconsistent versus clear standards of evaluation). Implications of these constructs are discussed with regard to the delivery, cognitive processing, and responses associated with performance feedback.

Key concepts:

• performance feedback
• performance appraisal
• employee evaluation
• positive feedback
• negative feedback
• superior‐subordinate communication
• organizational communication
• multidimensionality
• perceptions
• information processing