Date of Award

7-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Lisa A. Steelman

Second Advisor

Robert Taylor

Third Advisor

Zhiqing Zhou

Fourth Advisor

Erin Richard

Abstract

For years, empirical research has supported the claims that an organization’s feedback environment is related to numerous beneficial outcomes for employees and organizations. While we have a valid and reliable way to measure this feedback environment, we don’t know much about how to intervene in organizations to create a favorable feedback environment. This research study attempted to improve an organization’s feedback environment through a planned change intervention and therefore to create new institutionalized group norms often prevalent in a favorable feedback environment. The goal of the intervention was to train employees on the seven dimensions of the feedback environment and how to promote a favorable context for feedback within the work unit. Although the primary hypotheses predicting differences between the training and control group were not supported, the results suggest the intervention did have a favorable impact. The training intervention did improve the feedback environment when the initial environment perceptions were unfavorable, there was no improvement when the environment was already viewed as favorable. This suggests that a feedback environment training intervention can help improve the feedback environment when it is needed most.

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