Research On The Relationship Between Achievement Goal Orientation, Leadership Style And Feedback-seeking Behavior

The giving and receiving of feedback is ubiquitous in organizations, and the design and maintenance of performance feedback systems are essential for both individual and organizational performance. Feedback seeking is an important individual resource for employees. Feedback seeking enables employees to clarify their role expectations, evaluate the adequacy and appropriateness of their work behavior, and improve their work performance.The antecedents of feedback-seeking behaviors can be classified into two genera categories:(a) individual dispositions such as self-esteem, achievement goal orientation, (b) Feedback context factors such as organizational culture, leadership style. Goal orientation- an individual disposition for goal preferences in achievement situations, reflect the purpose of achievement behaviors in a particular settings. The leadership style has great influence on employees' behaviors. The focus of the present study is to analyze how these categories of antecedents jointly influence feedback-seeking behavior, and the cognitive variables- perceived cost and value proposed to mediate an individual's feedback-seeking behavior. With the method of field interview study, questionnaire survey, and typical case study, we surveyed nearly four hundred employees from more than twenty companies of different trades. Our research results include:A learning goal orientation has a positive relationship with cognitions about the perceived value of feedback seeking and frequency of feedback-seeking behaviors, has a negative relationship with cognitions about the perceived cost of feedback seeking. A avoid goal orientation has a positive relationship with cognitions about the perceived cost, has a negative relationship with cognitions about the perceived value of feedback seeking and frequency of feedback-seeking behaviors.There is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and the perceived value of feedback seeking. There is a positive relationship betweentransactional leadership and the perceived cost of feedback seeking.The positive relationship between learning goal orientation and cognitions about the perceived cost of feedback seeking is stronger when transformational leadership is high, as compared with when it is low. The positive relationship between avoid goal orientation and cognitions about the perceived cost of feedback seeking is weaker, when the transactional leadership is low, as compared with when it is high.The perceived cost and value of feedback seeking mediate the relationships of achievement goal orientation, leadership style with feedback-seeking behavior.