The Relationship Between Uncertainty and Desire for Feedback: A Test of Competing Hypotheses1

The relationship between uncertainty and desire for feedback was investigated in 2 studies. Results of Study 1 showed support for a curvilinear relationship. People were interested in feedback at high and low levels of uncertainty, as opposed to moderate levels of uncertainty, indicating the activation of both uncertainty reduc-tion and self-verification motives. In Study 2, the curvilinear relationship with uncer-tainty was replicated for indirect feedback-seeking behavior. In contrast, we found a negative relationship between direct feedback seeking and uncertainty, moderated by certainty orientation. People seemed more motivated by self-verification vs. uncertainty reduction strivings, depending on their certainty orientation. These find-ings suggest that the relationship between uncertainty and desire for feedback is less simple than previously thought. The past two decades of research in the domain of performance feedback have demonstrated that employees in organizations are more than passive recipients of feedback. Employees have a genuine interest in obtaining feed-back and initiate a wide range of actions to acquire feedback about thei