Feedback: evidence from psychology for best practice.

Feedback is an important process in all areas of our personal and professional lives. The basic feedback process is a flow of information, in which the ‘sender’ relays a piece of information – the ‘message’ to an intended ‘recipient’ (see McDowall, 2008 for fuller discussion). Feedback does not necessarily have to come from other people. We get feedback from tasks and our own feelings and thoughts about what we do. Evidence from both organisational and educational settings highlights the feedback process as a major source of discontent. It is not uncommon to confuse feedback desirability with usefulness (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). Dissatisfaction with annual appraisal processes has long been documented (Fletcher, 2004), with little buy in, either from managers or their direct reports. In education, students habitually rate satisfaction with feedback and assessment processes as the worst part of their academic experience (National Student Survey, 2006). This paper discusses factors affecting the different parties involved in feedback and concludes with specific recommendations for both occupational and educational settings