Factors Affecting the Frequency, Timing, and Sign of Informal Supervisory Feedback to Subordinates in a Simulated Work Setting

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Abstract
Three critical characteristics of informal supervisory feedback to subordinates were defined which determine message effectiveness: frequency, timing and sign. Three potentially important determinants of these characteristics were identified (subordinate performance level, feedback mode, and supervisor-subordinate interdependence) and experimentally manipulated in a multivariate 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. One-hundred male psychology students functioned as supervisors of four-man groups in a simulated work setting. Overall MANOVA results were highly significant. Follow-up ANOVA findings indicated that: (a) supervisors gave more frequent feedback to poor performers than to good ones, (b) feedback frequency was higher when the mode was written than face-to-face, and