Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2015

Opening a Performance Dialogue With Employees

Catherine Y. Kingsley Westerman North Dakota State University ; Sandi W. Smith Michigan State University

Abstract

This study examines how a supervisor’s delivery of negative feedback affects employees’ tendency to respond by either voicing their ideas or remaining silent. The results show that approbation, or the use of praise to soften face threat, was the most effective facework message for the supervisor to use when providing negative feedback. When employees felt more threatened, they reported that they would be less likely to use voice to help others and more likely to use silence defensively as a response, but as their perceptions of threat decreased, they generally reported that they were more likely to use voice to help others. The article discusses implications of these results, limitations of the study, and future directions of this research.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2015-10-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651915588147
Open Access
Closed
Topics
voice and style affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Meloncon et al. (2019)
    Empirical Research in Technical and Professional Communication: A 5-Year Examin…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

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