Evidence-Based Recommendation 3

Provide your employees with developmental feedback, which will increase job performance and motivation.  

Recent research discovered a relationship between developmental feedback with both intrinsic job motivation and job performance.  The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation on the Relationship Between Developmental Feedback and Employee Job Performance also proved that intrinsic motivation has a positive correlation with job performance.  Developmental feedback is defined as “the extent to which supervisors provide information that enables employees to learn, develop, and improve at work (Zhou, 2003).”  The hypotheses attempt to discover a correlation between developmental feedback, intrinsic motivation, and job performance, as referenced in Figure 1.  

Figure 1: Theoretical Mediation Model

Source: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation on the Relationship Between Developmental Feedback and Employee Job Performance

The hypotheses include:

1. Developmental feedback will be positively related to job performance
2. Developmental feedback will be positively related to intrinsic motivation
3. Intrinsic motivation will be positively related to job performance
4. Intrinsic motivation will have a mediating effect on the relationship between developmental feedback and job performance

212 supervisor-subordinate pairs from 12 enterprises were used to determine the relationship amongst the three tested variables.  All four hypotheses were supported using regression analysis in Table 1, hypothesis 1 (B=.245), hypothesis 2 (B=.228), hypothesis 3 (B=.209), and hypothesis 4 (B=.160).  

Table 1: Linear Regression Analysis

Source: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation on the Relationship Between Developmental Feedback and Employee Job Performance

Although this study may pertain to more of an individual level, this recommendation applies to managers who will lead teams; managers should use developmental feedback to motivate their team members. In the workplace, many companies tend to at least have an annual performance review for employees to discuss performance, but this kind of evaluative feedback only discusses how employees performed and what they have done in the past.  According to this study, it is important to also incorporate developmental feedback which offers managers the chance to give employees feedback on how to develop their futures. Examples of developmental feedback are mentoring and training programs. Developmental feedback develops positive intrinsic motivation, which is defined in the study as an individual’s enjoyment of the work itself rather than external outcomes. This study implies that when a manager evaluates an employee’s past performance while also providing opportunities for growth and learning, the employee develops a better sense and liking for his or her job.  Developmental feedback allows employees to feel valued in the workplace, and as mentioned in our past recommendations, the sense of value creates motivation in employees and team members.  Team Creativity; the Effects of Perceived Learning Culture, Developmental Feedback and Team Cohesion discusses developmental feedback related organizational culture.  

The first limitation of this study is that it was conducted in China and results could have reflected Chinese culture specifically. Results could have differed had the study been conducted in any other country.  Although this study was conducted in China, we believe that if a similar study were conducted in the United States, results may be similar. Also, the study was conducted in a survey format, which could have had biases that results could not measure. This study also only studied how developmental feedback led to intrinsic motivation and did not study any other factors that could have a role in encouraging intrinsic motivation.  We believe this because of our previous studies in the organizational behavior class, as well as from our previous recommendations, that when companies and leaders show their employees their value to an organization, they in turn have more motivation to perform well.

Works Cited

Guo, Yun, Jianqiao Liao, and Zanhong Zhang. "The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation on the Relationship Between Developmental Feedback and Employee Job Performance." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal. June 2014. Web. 28 July 2014. <http://ezproxy.chatham.edu:3826/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=17c9a7bb-07cd-428d-bf67-ccd950f1371d%40sessionmgr4002&vid=4&hid=4110>.

Joo, Baek-Kyoo, Ji Hoon Song, Doo Hun Lim, and Seung Won Yoon. "Team Creativity; the Effects of Perceived Learning Culture, Developmental Feedback and Team Cohesion." International Journal of Training and Development. 2012. Web. 28 July 2014.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Robert Sutton. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-truths & Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2006. Print.