Fostering psychological safety through facework: The importance of the effective delivery of performance feedback
Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined the relationships between employees’ perceptions of \nsupervisory coaching-oriented behaviors and psychological safety at work, and between \npsychological safety at work and error reporting and turnover. This study also examined \nthe relationships between employees’ perceptions of the degree to which supervisors show \nregard for their subordinates’ positive and negative face under conditions of negative \nfeedback communication, and psychological safety at work. Coaching-oriented behaviors \nwere operationalized as delivering prompt, specific, and behaviorally-related general \nperformance feedback; considerate, private, and externally-attributed negative \nperformance feedback; public and internally-attributed positive performance feedback; \nseeking input from work group members; listening to work group members’ concerns; and \nbeing accessible and receptive to work group members’ questions and ideas. Results \nindicated that the more supervisors were perceived to (a) seek input from subordinate \nemployees regarding work-related matters, (b) attribute poor performance to external \nfactors when delivering negative performance feedback, and (c) provide prompt general \nperformance feedback to employees, the greater employees’ reported psychological safety. \nResults also indicated that the more supervisors were perceived to attend to employees’ \nface needs when delivering negative feedback (particularly their positive face needs), the \ngreater employees’ reported psychological safety. In turn, psychological safety was found \nto be significantly and positively associated with the willingness of employees (and work \ngroups) to report errors, and to be significantly and negatively associated with employees’ \n(and work groups’) intention to turnover. Negative feedback delivered in a considerate tone \nof voice also was found to be a statistically significant predictor of group members’ \nwillingness to report errors. However, psychological safety was not found to be related to \nactual error reporting or turnover by work unit in this study. Implications and directions for \nfurther research are discussed.
Author: Mary E. Smith
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1955867354