The Influence Of Achievement Goal Orientation On Feedback-Seeking Behavior In Different Contexts

Feedback generally enhances both performance and motivation. Interest in the feedback area has almost exclusively addressed the effect of the feedback sender, while the active role of the feedback recipient has been ignored. Ashford & Cummings challenge this view from a new perspective by proposing that feedback is not only a useful and important organizational resource, but also a valuable resource for individuals. Based on this, they first introduce the concept of feedback-seeking behavior, which takes more opportunities for further exploration in the feedback area. Feedback-seeking behavior refers to conscious devotion of effort toward determining the correctness and adequacy of behaviors for attaining valued end states. As to why individuals will likely seek feedback, Ashford states that this behavior serve several functions, such as uncertainty reduction, self-evaluative function, signaling function and the competence creating function. Individuals generally may create three motives underlying the feedback seeking process: the desire for useful information, the desire to protect one's ego and the desire for impression management. Recent research suggests that an individual's achievement goal orientation influences feedback seeking behavior. However, this effect being direct or indirect still needs to be further discussed. Empirical work has also demonstrated that the publicness of the feedback-seeking context has a strong effect on the feedback-seeking behavior. Does this factor have an impact on individual's goal orientation and continued feedback-seeking behavior? Previous research didn't deal with it. In the educational area, students'feedback-seeking behaviors are related to creative thinking, intellectual development, subject interest and increased learning motivation. Traditionally, researchers have directed their attention to feedback-seeking processes in the organizational and business area. Based on this, the present study tries to explore student's feedback seeking behavior in the field of teaching area. The present study uses 3×2 two-factor randomized experiment design. 190 subjects are randomly selected from a senior high school and divided into six groups. Several scales are also used. All the data is processed with SPSS10.0. The following conclusions are drawn from the research: (1) Personal achievement goal orientation has significant effect on feedback-seeking behavior. Compared to the other two goal orientations, students with learning goal orientation seek feedback most. Students with performance-prove goal orientation also seek much more feedback than the ones with performance-avoid goal orientation. (2) Publicness of context has significant effect on feedback-seeking behavior. Students seek much less feedback in the public context than in the private one. (3) Achievement goal orientation interacts with the context in determining feedback-seeking behavior. In the private context, students with performance-avoid goal orientation seek significantly less feedback than the ones with learning and performance-prove goal orientation. The difference between the latter two is not significant. While in the public context, students with learning goal orientation seek significant more feedback than the ones with performance-prove and performance-avoid goal orientation. The difference between the latter two is not significant. (4) Achievement goal orientation is significantly related to both feedback-seeking motives and feedback-seeking behavior. Learning goal orientation is positively related to desire for useful information but negatively related to desire to protect one's ego and impression management. Performance-prove goal orientation is positively related to the three feedback-seeking motives. Performance-avoid goal orientation is positively related to desire to protect one's ego and impression management but not correlated with desire for useful information. Feedback-seeking behavior is positively related to learning goal orientation but negatively related to performance-avoid goal orientation. Meanwhile, it is positively related to desire for useful information, negatively related to desire for impression management but not related to desire for protect one's ego. (5) Desire for useful information and impression management mediate the influence of achievement goal orientation on feedback-seeking behavior. Learning goal orientation...