Feedback acceptance in developmental assessment centers: the role of feedback message, participant personality, and affective response to the feedback session

We investigated feedback acceptance by participants (N = 141) in an operational developmental assessment center (AC). Consistent with predictions based on self-enhancement theory and the Affective Infusion Model, results indicated that higher assessor ratings were associated with higher feedback acc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of organizational behavior 2008-07, Vol.29 (5), p.681-703
Main Authors: Bell, Suzanne T., Arthur Jr, Winfred
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceptance
Agreeableness
Assessors
Emotional stability
Emotions
Extroversion
Feedback
Information feedback
Negative feedback
Organizational behavior
Personality
Personality psychology
Positive feedback
Ratings
Regression coefficients
Self verification
Social psychology
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We investigated feedback acceptance by participants (N = 141) in an operational developmental assessment center (AC). Consistent with predictions based on self-enhancement theory and the Affective Infusion Model, results indicated that higher assessor ratings were associated with higher feedback acceptance, and this relationship was partially mediated by the participant's affective reaction to the feedback session. Participants' self-ratings of their AC performance did not affect this relationship suggesting no support for our prediction based on self-verification theory. We also investigated the role of participants' self-ratings of agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability in feedback acceptance by testing specific moderated mediation hypotheses. Extraversion was related to feedback acceptance through the affective reaction to the feedback session. Agreeableness moderated the affective reaction to the feedback session and feedback acceptance relationship such that there was a strong relationship between affective reaction and feedback acceptance for highly agreeable participants, but no relationship for low agreeable individuals. For low agreeable individuals, there was a positive direct relationship between the assessor ratings and feedback acceptance which was not observed for highly agreeable individuals. The hypothesized role of emotional stability in predicting feedback acceptance was not supported. Implications for the delivery of feedback in developmental ACs are discussed in light of these findings.
ISSN:0894-3796
1099-1379
DOI:10.1002/job.525