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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
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Movement Retraining using Real-time Feedback of Performance
Published on: January 17, 2013
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The future of feedback: Motivating performance improvement through future-focused feedback
Jackie Gnepp1, Joshua Klayman2, Ian O Williamson3
1Humanly Possible, Inc., Oak Park, Illinois, United States of America.
Plos One
|June 20, 2020
Summary
Managerial feedback often fails because recipients doubt its accuracy, especially negative feedback. Focusing performance discussions on future actions, not past performance, boosts motivation for improvement.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Behavior
- Management Science
- Human Resources
Background:
- Managerial feedback discussions frequently do not lead to expected performance enhancements.
- Understanding the reasons behind feedback ineffectiveness is crucial for improving performance management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate why performance feedback conversations are often ineffective.
- To identify strategies for making performance feedback more impactful and driving improvements.
Main Methods:
- Three studies were conducted, involving managers describing feedback experiences and role-playing performance reviews.
- Qualitative and role-playing methods were employed to capture real-world feedback dynamics.
Main Results:
- Recipients of mixed or negative feedback questioned its accuracy and the manager's credibility.
- Feedback discussions increased disagreement about past performance due to self-protective attributions.
- Focusing conversations on future actions, rather than past events, enhanced motivation to improve.
Conclusions:
- Performance feedback effectiveness is hindered by recipient skepticism and attributional biases.
- Shifting the focus of feedback discussions from past performance to future-oriented actions is key to improving managerial effectiveness and employee development.
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