Premium
THE INFLUENCE OF UPWARD FEEDBACK ON SELF‐ AND FOLLOWER RATINGS OF LEADERSHIP
Author(s) -
ATWATER LEANNE,
ROUSH PAUL,
FISCHTHAL ALLISON
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01745.x
Subject(s) - psychology , negative feedback , social psychology , feedback regulation , positive feedback , perception , transformational leadership , self enhancement , physics , mathematics education , quantum mechanics , voltage , neuroscience , electrical engineering , engineering
The impact of upward feedback (followers' perceptions of leadership provided to leaders) on leaders' self‐evaluations and followers' subsequent ratings of leadership was assessed in a field setting. Subjects were 978 student leaders and their 1,232 followers. Results indicated that overall, leaders' behaviors as rated by followers improved after feedback. Leaders' self‐evaluations following feedback became more similar to the evaluations provided by followers. Interestingly, when leaders were grouped according to whether feedback was positive, neutral, or negative based on agreement between self‐ and follower ratings, differences between groups in post‐feedback self‐evaluations and follower ratings emerged. Self‐evaluations for leaders receiving negative feedback (high self‐ relative to followers' ratings) went down, while self‐evaluations for leaders receiving positive feedback (low self‐ relative to follower's ratings) went up. Follower ratings of leaders who received negative feedback improved following feedback to leaders, while there was no change in follower ratings for those receiving positive feedback. Implications for using upward feedback in organizations are discussed.