Understanding how supervisor feedback delivery style influences employee reactions: a dynamic affective perspective

Existing research has predominantly focused on the content and frequency of feedback, with limited attention given to how supervisors deliver feedback (i.e., feedback delivery style). Drawing on affective events theory and personality systems interaction theory, this study examines how supervisor feedback delivery style influences employees’ affect and behaviors. Specifically, we propose that supervisor feedback delivery style influences employees’ positive and negative affect, which in turn predict their learning behavior and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Moreover, fluctuations in affect will moderate the relationship between initial affect and subsequent behavior. Results from the 10-day experience sampling study and experimental studies demonstrated that a friendly feedback delivery style was positively related to employees’ learning behavior via positive affect but negatively influenced their CWB through negative affect. Additionally, affect triggered by supervisor feedback delivery style interacted with subsequent affective change to shape employees’ behaviors.