Feedback is essential and critical at the same time to have a detrimental impact on the individual’s performance. The debate has been on for a long time that either positive feedback is useful or negative feedback. Feedback, either in the academic setting, work setting, or family setting, plays an essential role in the self-efficacy of a person and helps in improving the individual’s performance. “Feedback by nature must be negative to an extent if it is to be helpful in improving performance. Much of the feedback that significant others give is to specifically point out the shortcomings of an individual’s task and motivate the person towards improvement. Such feedback is intended to be received as ‘constructive criticism.
However, although individuals may say they value feedback in general, when it is about their performance and by extension themselves, the impact on self-esteem may provoke an adverse reaction” (p. 174). This statement shows up in a study that investigated how much criticism should be given to their students. There are many scholars who favor that negative feedback is healthy and improves performance, but at the same time, there are some researchers and scholars who suggest that positive feedback is a new form of motivator that, when given efficiently and timely, can lead to improved performance. I stand with the latter one, who is in favor of positive feedback, because I think that instructors, employees, students, or anybody can be improved by positive feedback. Positive feedback reveals to you what you are doing well or what works. On the other hand, one can realize that anybody can accomplish a greater amount of it. Beyond any doubt, one won’t enhance performance if one gets positive feedback.
Significant others, like parents, friends, teachers, and siblings (Shrauger & Rosenberg, 1970), play an essential role in affecting the performance of individuals. The main purpose of feedback is not to pass any comment or judgment on an individual’s performance but rather to provide support, guidance, challenge, and information. Burnett (1996) investigated the relationship between positive and negative statements that are made by parents, teachers, siblings, peers, and children’s self-talk; it was also found that positive feedback is more beneficial than verbal criticism. At home, the personalities and beliefs of children are shaped by parents and siblings, whereas in schools, teachers and peers play an important role in developing their individuality and personality. Children’s achievement-related beliefs (e.g., feedback) are important because these beliefs have a significant influence on their performance. Schunk and colleagues conducted a series of experiments to examine the effects of feedback and goals on students’ performance and found that progress feedback, together with learning goals, is beneficial to their performance (Schunk & Rice, 1991).
There are two types of feedback, praise and criticism, that are usually considered reinforcers in any setting that is used to achieve the goal of learning. In the school setting, teachers’ feedback plays a crucial role in influencing students’ learning. Similarly, in the case of writing classes, negative feedback is not preferred. Rather, it is said that positive feedback has the potential to improve students’ learning outcomes. There are a variety of learning contexts, like face-to-face learning and distance learning, and there are different types of students, such as students with high confidence and students with low self-esteem, so it yields multiple types of interactions between instructor and learner. Teachers are encountered with a wide variety of learners in a wide range of settings. So, there is a need for different types of approaches, and not all students should receive the same type of feedback. When the interaction is not healthy, then obviously, it will end up in lousy learning (Belschak & DenHartog, 2009).
In the case of workplace setting, positive feedback helps employees improve their tasks and maximize performance. Studies have found that when an organization pays attention to its employees and expects great things by presenting different opportunities, it can improve its performance. Related to organizational behavior, those employees who receive consistent, planned feedback along with training and increased expectations perform significantly better than others (Shields, 2007). The necessary mandate of an organization, from a broader perspective, is to train their employees while developing their abilities and skills, and for that purpose, timely feedback is essential. Studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between positive feedback given by an organization and employee development, and then this leads to decreased costs for the organization. Those employees who are appreciated by their supervisors perform much better than those who are not appreciated.
Those who are proponents of constructive criticism say that criticism improves performance, but plenty of literature suggests that constructive feedback is important and is not a criticism as it is descriptive and is meant to help employees motivate and perform up to the mark. Moreover, nobody likes criticism, and research indicates that learning-oriented employees do not appreciate criticism; instead, they are open to positive feedback. Similarly, when individuals are blamed for their shortcomings, this will lower their engagement, which will ultimately affect their performance negatively. Studies suggest that those supervisors (teachers or employers) who focus on the strengths of their subordinates (students or employees) receive positive and improved performance from them.
Although some researchers say that negative feedback is healthy as it is a healthy way to stop unwanted behavior, Leadership Management International suggests that it is not a good strategy to encourage employees to replace their bad behavior with positive one. Similarly, negative feedback can inconveniently influence work fulfillment, as indicated by Diane M. Alexander, Professor at the University of Rhode Island. The person who receives negative feedback may lose the will to work positively and efficiently because of his response to the negative appraisal of his efforts performance. Furthermore, negative feedback hits the self-esteem of the individuals, and instead of getting motivated, they become de-motivated and perform poorly in the future. Although some individuals are open to criticism yet, there are plenty of individuals who receive criticism negatively, and their performance is affected in a more negative manner.
In the case of the workplace, negative feedback increases the stress and anxiety levels of employees and, in return, affects their health and well-being. Some studies suggest that negative feedback leads to absenteeism and even turnover in some cases. So, losing employees means the company is losing talent, thus resulting in the overall decline of organizational performance. So, those who consider that negative feedback can lead to improvement in overall performance think wrong because it is evident from many studies that individuals take negative feedback as a way of insult, thus causing them stress that leads to lower self-esteem and eventually lowering performance (Belschak & DenHartog, 2009).
Conclusion
Conclusively, the crucial purpose of giving positive feedback involves helping individuals to grow, comprehend, and understand that they are answerable and responsible for their actions and performance and also to make them learn that the support and guidance are there and significant others are recognizing their efforts. When something positive is expected from individuals, and they are provided with effective advice and positive feedback, they perform best. So constructive feedback always ranks higher than constructive criticism, which often makes people rebellious. So, in light of the given evidence, positive feedback is both valuable and healthy for individuals’ performance.
References
Ackerman, D. S. and Gross, B. L. (2010). Instructor feedback: How much do students want? Journal of Marketing Education, 32 (2), 172-181.
Belschak, F., & Den Hartog, D. (2009). Consequences of Positive and Negative Feedback: The Impact on Emotions and Extra-Role Behaviors. Applied Psychology, 58(2), 274-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00336.x
Kraft, D. (2018). Woman.thenest.com. Retrieved from https://woman.thenest.com/problems-can-negative-feedback-cause-job-15087.html
Shrauger, J. S., & Rosenberg, S. E. (1970). Self‐esteem and the effects of success and failure feedback on performance. Journal of Personality, 38(3), 404-417.
Shields, J. (2007). Managing employee performance and reward. New York.
Schunk, D. H., & Rice, J. M. (1991). Learning goals and progress feedback during reading comprehension instruction. Journal of Reading Behavior, 23(3), 351-364.
Essays, UK. (November 2013). Effect Of Positive Feedback On Employee Performance. Retrieved from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/effect-of-positive-feedback-on-employee-performance-management-essay.php?vref=1
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