Transcript HR AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich The HR

Are your employees avoiding you?
Managerial Strategies to Close the
Feedback Gap
Juan I. Sanchez, Ph.D.
Florida International University
Department of Management & Int’l Business
College of Business Administration
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Not everyone enjoys feedback…
You have been a good horse, fast,
easy to ride, but you need to work on
your galloping a bit…
Not everyone enjoys feedback…
I said “give me the feed-bag,” dummy, not
“give me feedback”!
The feedback gap
•Employees should seek feedback from managers
when they perform poorly…
•In return, managers should give constructive
feedback to employees, so that they can improve
their performance…
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Consider the following recent examples…
NASA engineers were engaged in an intense
debate over potential wing damage from extreme
heat one day before the shuttle Columbia broke up
over the skies of Texas, a scenario much like the
one investigators believe happened. For some still
The direct subordinates of an authoritarian
unclear
reasons,province
the engineers
never tooksources
the
In
the
Chinese
of
Guangdong,
leader like Saddam Hussein were apparently so
matter
to top NASA managers.
have
government
officials
afraidspeculated
of bringingthat
him
bad news that
he did not
interfered
with information
concerning
rapid
receive accurate
reports of the
coalition the
forces’
spread
of the Severe
Acute
Respiratory
rapid approach
towards
Baghdad.
Syndrome (SARS), apparently because they
might have feared their superiors’ reaction.
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Managers and employees often neglect
constructive exchanges leading to improved
performance…
Manager suffers a sense of discomfort when giving
negative feedback or a lack of tolerance for poor
performance and the accompanying emotionally-charged
reactions.
Employee fails to seek
feedback and avoids
negative feedback to
preserve self-image and
manage impressions on
others.
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A dangerous spiraling reaction…
•Feedback gap widens as a result of a
spiraling reaction where employee and
supervisor reinforce and stimulate each
other to neither receive nor give feedback
regarding performance.
•This spiraling reaction perpetuates a
corporate culture that precludes
organizational learning.
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We’d like to provide an actionable roadmap
towards the learning organization…
•A healthy feedback exchange is key to the
learning organization.
•Even though the competitive advantage of the
learning organization is well understood, the
roadmap for creating the learning organization is
still blurry.
•Our roadmap describes the specific actions that
are likely to instigate a healthy feedback exchange
among managers and employees.
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Both sides contribute to the feedback gap…
Manager contributions
Employee contributions
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Employee contributions to the Feedback Gap:
Feedback Avoiding Behavior (FAB)
Or
“Dodging” the Feedback Bullet
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Employee contributions to the Feedback Gap:
Personal cost feedback-seeking > obvious benefits
•Threat to self-esteem.
•Fear of appearing incompetent to boss.
•Fear of ridicule from coworkers.
•Fear of admitting weakness.
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Employee contributions to the Feedback Gap:
FAB Temptations
•Desire to maintain appearance of consistency.
•Desire to manage impressions.
•Desire to buy time.
•Desire to preserve the ego.
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Employee contributions to the Feedback Gap:
Personal factors which encourage FAB
•Propensity to seek positive feedback.
•Fear of negative evaluation.
•High self-esteem.
•High concern for public image.
•High need for approval.
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Manager contributions to the Feedback Gap
Zero-Tolerant Manager
•Low tolerance for failure.
•Propensity to make the fundamental attribution
error.
•Tendency to react emotionally to bad news.
•Psychologically or physically distant from
employees.
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Manager contributions to the Feedback Gap
Micromanager
•Too physically close to employees.
•Fails to delegate.
•Obsessed with details.
•Propensity to make the false consensus error.
•Takes over.
•Expert in finding fault.
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Manager contributions to the Feedback Gap
Conflict Avoider
•Delays, distorts and avoids giving feedback.
•Uncomfortable with emotional reactions to
feedback.
•Gives employee the benefit of the doubt.
•Nurturing style.
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Let’s examine management strategies
to “bite the feedback bullet”…
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Management Strategy:
Understand Causes of Poor Performance
•Receive Attribution training.
•Explore attribution biases.
•Ask for employee “accounts.”
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Management Strategy:
Manage Physical and Psychological Distance
•Reduce physical distance to understand external
causes of poor performance.
•Increase physical distance to give decision
latitude.
•Reduce psychological distance to gain empathy
and trust.
•Increase psychological distance to gain
objectivity.
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Management Strategy:
Engage in Active Listening
•Be fully attentive with employees when they seek
feedback.
•Express interest in employee needs.
•Express concern for employees.
•Verbally summarize employee concerns to ensure
understanding.
•Verbally acknowledge employee statements.
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Management Strategy:
Best feedback-giving practices
•Give task-level and motivational feedback
•Describe poor performance in behavioral terms
•Focus on specific, controllable behavior
•Ask employee for improvement suggestions
•Give negative feedback in private
•Use effective timing
•Compare employee performance to a standard,
not to other employees
•Use a feedback script (e.g., DASR)
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Management Strategy:
Develop a “Learning” Mindset
•Consider failure an opportunity to learn.
•Dissect failure from a learning perspective.
•Capture the learning.
•Realize that failure is a by-product of risk-taking
and innovation.
•Do not tolerate scapegoating.
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Let’s see how each type of manager
may benefit from each strategy…
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Management Strategy:
Open-mind about causes of poor performance
Zero Tolerant
Manager
Micromanager
Conflict
Avoidant
Manager
Understand
fundamental
attribution error.
Understand false Understand
consensus effect. employees’ use
of self-serving
bias.
Understand
Understand
employees’
possible external rationale for task Open up
reasons for
strategy.
dialogue more
failure.
comfortably (for
manager).
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Management Strategy:
Active Listening
Zero Tolerant
Manager
Micromanager
Conflict
Avoidant
Manager
Gives manager
tools to avoid
hasty emotional
responses.
Allows manager
to consider
alternative ways
to complete tasks.
Reduces
manager’s
discomfort by
having employee
control dialogue.
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Management Strategy:
Distance Management
Zero Tolerant
Manager
Micromanager
Reduce physical
distance to
understand
employee’s
environment.
Increase physical Increase
distance to give psychological
discretion.
distance to gain
objectivity.
Reduce
psychological
distance to gain
empathy.
Conflict Avoidant
Manager
Reduce
psychological
distance to gain
empathy.
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Management Strategy:
Best feedback-giving practices (Task or
motivational level, private, well-timed)
Zero Tolerant
Manager
Micromanager
Conflict Avoidant
Manager
Manager avoids
attacking the
employee.
Reduces
employee
discomfort.
Wait: Allows
manager to
check emotions.
Manager avoids
making employee
feel inadequate.
Reduces
employee
discomfort.
Wait: Allows
employee’s task
strategy to play
out.
Realize that negative
feedback can be
non-threatening.
Reduces manager’s
discomfort with a
rehearsed script.
Immediate feedback
for best contingency.
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Management Strategy:
Develop a Learning Mindset
Zero Tolerant
Manager
Micromanager
Conflict Avoidant
Manager
Organization
will advance if
we embrace
failure rather
than find
scapegoats.
Employee will
If we don’t directly
develop more if
address failure, we
given discretion
will never improve.
to experiment and
possibly fail.
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Thank you!
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