Kumulative Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2025

Supervisory feedback plays a crucial role for employee motivation and performance. In this dissertation, I examined how three key factors in feedback, namely feedback message, supervisory characteristics, and employee characteristics affect employee feedback processing across three studies. Each study contributes to a deeper understanding of vital factors that influence how feedback is given and received, and how these, in turn, shape employee responses to feedback.

In Study 1, I investigated the effects of the supervisory feedback message on employee feedback processing, focusing on two types of feedback: negative feedback and employee coaching (i.e., negative and facilitative feedback). First, I conducted two pilot studies that validated the experimental vignettes used in the main study, assessing their feasibility and effectiveness in eliciting meaningful responses. Second, for the main study, I conducted a laboratory experimental vignette study (N = 69) with students from a public university in Germany, exploring how different types of supervisory feedback influence employee responses, including perceived accuracy, feedback acceptance, desire to respond, and intended response. I introduced employee mindset (i.e., fixed vs. growth mindset) as a moderator in these relationships. The main hypothesis was that employee coaching would be more accepted and lead to more positive employee responses than negative feedback alone, especially for those with a growth mindset. The results supported this hypothesis, revealing that employee coaching had a larger effect on employee responses to feedback compared to negative feedback alone. Similarly, moderation analysis showed that the positive effects of coaching were particularly pronounced among employees with a growth mindset.

In Study 2, I aimed to advance understanding of the key supervisory feedback characteristics related to employee feedback processing. I hypothesized that various supervisory feedback characteristics, such as charisma and credibility, would significantly impact employee feedback processing, leading to more positive employee reactions. To test the hypothesis, I conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis to explore the relationship between these supervisory feedback characteristics and employee feedback processing. I found 24 relevant studies, which included 75 effect sizes from a total of N = 595,950 employees. First, through the systematic review, I identified and categorized 26 supervisory feedback characteristics into eight broader categories, including charisma, credibility, feedback valence, feedback quality, support, fairness, learning goal orientation, and similarity. To validate these results, I also invited prominent feedback experts as subject-matter experts. Second, I meta-analyzed these results, which revealed a significant medium-to-large positive correlation between the supervisory feedback characteristics and employee feedback processing, with charisma and credibility as the most influential characteristics. Specifically, the strongest correlations were shown between charisma and the desire to respond to feedback, as well as feedback acceptance. These results supported the hypothesis and showed the critical role that certain supervisory feedback characteristics play in shaping employee responses. These results offer valuable insights for enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices by focusing on feedback interventions that emphasize such characteristics to foster more positive employee outcomes.

In Study 3, building on the findings from Study 2, I aimed to design supervisory feedback profiles and examine their impact on employee feedback processing. I hypothesized that higher-quality supervisory feedback profiles would lead to better feedback processing through their influence on task processes and meta-processes as mediating variables. To test this hypothesis, I first conducted a latent profile analysis using a person-centered approach to identify the number of supervisory feedback latent profiles within the sample. After that, I employed a within-subjects experimental vignette design to assess the effects of these feedback profiles on employee feedback processing, with feedback sign as a moderator and employee task processes and meta-processes as mediating variables. The study involved a mixed-population sample (N = 452). The results revealed that, compared to low-quality feedback, high-quality supervisory feedback (i.e., supervisors scoring high on key characteristics such as charisma or credibility) had significant indirect effects on feedback processing through task processes and meta-processes. However, feedback sign did not moderate these effects, which aligns with previous research. Findings suggest that supervisors and employees can benefit from targeted trainings that improve feedback quality and processing, enhancing overall feedback effectiveness.

Overall, with these three studies, this dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of how supervisory feedback characteristics influence employee feedback processing, with each study building upon the previous one. In Study 1, I established the importance of feedback message content, showing that employee coaching is more effective than negative feedback alone, particularly for employees with a growth mindset. Study 2 expanded on this by categorizing 26 supervisory feedback characteristics into eight key categories and highlighting the significant impact of characteristics like charisma and credibility on feedback processing. Building on these findings, in Study 3, I utilized these categories to design supervisory feedback profiles and examined their effects on employee feedback processing, confirming that high-quality feedback profiles lead to better feedback processing than low-quality profiles through task processes and meta-processes. Thus, these studies reveal the critical role of supervisory feedback in enhancing employee responses and provide insights for HRM practices aimed at improving feedback effectiveness through targeted training and development interventions.