Job related feedback is critical for employee development. Research indicates that people want job performance feedback but do not get nearly as much feedback as they need and when they do receive feedback it is often not as effective as it could be. Our research is focused on understanding the role of job performance feedback in organizations and answering the questions:

• Does feedback work? 
• How does feedback work?
• Why does feedback work?
• How can we make the feedback process work better?
• Can we diagnose its likely effects?
• What are the applied implications?

Some specific research questions examined by the feedback team include:

• What are some early antecedents to being a successful coach?
• What are the antecedents and outcomes of a favorable feedback environment and how can we train managers to develop a favorable feedback environment?
• Does feedback seeking have a different meaning in different cultures?
• How to employees manage feedback in a multiple goal work environment?
• What is the role of trust and politics in the feedback seeking process?

The feedback and employee engagement research team is also working on a number of employee engagement studies. Engagement is a hot topic right now but for the most part organizations are not deploying evidence-based instruments. The team is currently developing and validating a usable measure that still reflects the research and theory base in the area. Our on-going studies examine employee engagement in a virtual environment, as it related to feedback processes and individual difference factors associated with engagement.

Finally, we are conducting research in the area of gender and leadership. We are investigating the notion of self-confidence and personal and organizational factors that can help promote more women into senior leadership positions.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Lisa Steelman   (Dr. Steelman's website)

Publications & Presentations

Young, S.F., & Steelman, L.A. (in press). The role of feedback in supervisor and work group identification. Personnel Review.

Moukarzel, R., & Steelman, L.A. (in press). Navigating multicultural teams: A roadmap to feedback across cultures. In Wildman, J.L., & Griffith, R.L. (Eds.), Leading Global Teams: Translating the Multidisciplinary Science to Practice. Springer.

Domagalski, T., & Steelman, L.A. (2007). The impact of gender and organizational status on workplace anger expression. Management Communication Quarterly, 20(3), 297-315.

Rutkowski, K.A., & Steelman, L.A. (2005). Testing a Path Model for Antecedents of Accountability. Journal of Managerial Development, 24(5), 473-486.

Steelman, L.A., Levy, P.E., & Snell, A.F. (2004). The feedback environment scale: Construct definition, measurement and validation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64(1), 165-184.

Steelman, L.A., & Rutkowski, K.A. (2004). Moderators of Employee Reactions to Negative Feedback. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 19(1), 6-18.

Williams, J.R., Miller, C., Steelman, L.A. & Levy, P.E. (1999). Increasing feedback seeking in public contexts: It takes two (or more) to tango? Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 969-976.

Levy, P.E., & Steelman, L.A. (1997). Performance appraisal for team-based organizations: A prototypical Multi Rater System. In M.M. Beyerlein, D.A. Johnson, & S.T. Beyerlein (Eds.), Advances in interdisciplinary studies of work teams: Team implementation issues, (Vol. 4). JAI Press.

Steelman, L.A., & Young, S.F. (April, 2013). A multifoci approach to engagement: Integrating science and practice. Symposium conducted at the 28th Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference, Houston, Texas.

Young, S., Moukarzel, R., Steelman, L., Richard, E., & Gallo, J., (April, 2013). Increasing positive emotions following negative feedback: How empathy can help. Poster presented at the 28th Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference, Houston, Texas.

Young, S.F., Pita, M., Sudduth, M.M., Moukarzel, R., & Steelman, L.A. (April, 2013), Going with the flow: The role of personality in engagement. In Steelman, L.A., & Young, S.F. (Chairs), A multifoci approach to engagement: Integrating science and practice. Symposium conducted at the 28th Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference, Houston, Texas.

Moukarzel, R., Young, S., Monnot, M., Steelman, L.A., & Khoury, H., (April, 2013). Trust-in supervisor: The relationship driving feedback behaviors. Poster presented at the 28th Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Conference, Houston, Texas.

Moukarzel, R. & Steelman, L. (2012, April). When Employees use Feedback as a Political Strategy. Poster session presented at the Twenty-Seventh annual meeting of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Diego, CA.

Young, S., Steelman, L., Trane, S., Pita, M., Lockamy, C., & Sudduth, M. M. (2012, April). Reconceptualizing Employee Engagement: A Multiple Foci Approach. Poster session presented at the Twenty-Seventh annual meeting of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Diego, CA.

Bogle, C.A., & Steelman, L.A. (2011, April). An integrative model of the feedback environment. A. Gabriel & P.E. Levy (Chairs), Organizational Feedback: Encouraging it, Seeking it, and Using it! Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Industrial/ Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL.

Sudduth, M.M., & Steelman, L.A. (2011, April). Age and feedback: A case for individual differences over generation. Interactive poster session presented at the meeting of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL.

A, N., Li, X., Kung, M.C., & Steelman, L.A. (2011, April). Cultural differences in seeking success and failure feedback. Interactive poster session presented at the meeting of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL.

Grozman, E.M., Steelman, L.A., & Masztal, J.J. (April, 2009). Frequency of feedback seeking: Impact of motives and feedback environment. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, New Orleans, LA.