Deep in Thought: How Do Recipients Take in Negative Feedback?

Although people dislike being criticized, negative feedback can be beneficial to recipients by motivating them to improve their work performance. While previous research has mainly focused on how the providers can deliver negative feedback in an effective way to influence employees’ behaviors, little research has focused on which cognitive mechanisms and which behaviors recipients can rely on to gain benefits from received negative feedback. In this dissertation, I draw on the framework of rumination and reflection to propose a model of recurrent thinking about received negative feedback that explains why recipients may differentially engage in avoidance and approach efforts as their responses to negative feedback. That is, recipients can repetitively and automatically think about the unpleasant experiences associated with receiving negative feedback (i.e., rumination) and at the same time intellectually analyze the content of that feedback (i.e., reflection). While rumination about feedback results in recipients’ procrastination, which represents an avoidance response, reflection about feedback stimulates recipients’ creativity, which represents an approach response. Furthermore, recipients can obtain self-regulatory resources by developing state mindfulness and by conducting learning activities—both of which can weaken the association of negative feedback with rumination and strengthen the association with reflection. Using two studies, with a sample of 201 academics and a sample of 143 industrial employees’ 557 performance feedback events, respectively, I examined the proposed hypotheses. The results supported the positive effect of negative feedback on rumination, which then leads to procrastination, but the beneficial effects through reflection were not supported. Learning activities may potentially strengthen the beneficial path from negative feedback to creativity via reflection. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.