TY - JOUR
T1 - Age differences in feedback reactions
T2 - The roles of employee feedback orientation on social awareness and utility
AU - Wang, Mo
AU - Burlacu, Gabriela
AU - Truxillo, Donald
AU - James, Keith
AU - Yao, Xiang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2015/7/1
Y1 - 2015/7/1
N2 - Organizations worldwide are currently experiencing shifts in the age composition of their workforces. The workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age-diverse, suggesting that organizational researchers and practitioners need to better understand how age differences may manifest in the workplace and the implications for human resource practice. Integrating socioemotional selectivity theory with the performance feedback literature and using a time-lagged design, the current study examined age differences in moderating the relationships between the characteristics of performance feedback and employee reactions to the feedback event. The results suggest that older workers had higher levels of feedback orientation on social awareness, but lower levels of feedback orientation on utility than younger workers. Furthermore, the positive associations between favorability of feedback and feedback delivery and feedback reactions were stronger for older workers than for younger workers, whereas the positive association between feedback quality and feedback reactions was stronger for younger workers than for older workers. Finally, the current study revealed that age-related differences in employee feedback orientation could explain the different patterns of relationships between feedback characteristics and feedback reactions across older and younger workers. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for building theory about workplace aging and improving ways that performance feedback is managed across employees from diverse age groups.
AB - Organizations worldwide are currently experiencing shifts in the age composition of their workforces. The workforce is aging and becoming increasingly age-diverse, suggesting that organizational researchers and practitioners need to better understand how age differences may manifest in the workplace and the implications for human resource practice. Integrating socioemotional selectivity theory with the performance feedback literature and using a time-lagged design, the current study examined age differences in moderating the relationships between the characteristics of performance feedback and employee reactions to the feedback event. The results suggest that older workers had higher levels of feedback orientation on social awareness, but lower levels of feedback orientation on utility than younger workers. Furthermore, the positive associations between favorability of feedback and feedback delivery and feedback reactions were stronger for older workers than for younger workers, whereas the positive association between feedback quality and feedback reactions was stronger for younger workers than for older workers. Finally, the current study revealed that age-related differences in employee feedback orientation could explain the different patterns of relationships between feedback characteristics and feedback reactions across older and younger workers. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for building theory about workplace aging and improving ways that performance feedback is managed across employees from diverse age groups.
KW - Age
KW - Feedback orientation
KW - Older workers
KW - Performance feedback
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84937073974&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0038334
DO - 10.1037/a0038334
M3 - Article
C2 - 25546265
AN - SCOPUS:84937073974
SN - 0021-9010
VL - 100
SP - 1296
EP - 1308
JO - Journal of Applied Psychology
JF - Journal of Applied Psychology
IS - 4
ER -