Responses to Feedback: The Role of Acceptance, Affect, and Creative Behavior

The feedback literature has largely been developed under two divergent assumptions: individuals are either passive receivers or proactive seekers of feedback. We bridge these two literatures using affective events theory and expand understanding of the relationships between feedback delivered as part of a performance evaluation process and self-sought feedback (feedback seeking) by theorizing about feedback through a within-person, episodic lens while focusing on an important organizational behavioral outcome—creative behavior. We offer a dynamic theoretical and empirical account of how feedback acceptance and activating positive affect transmit the effects of supervisor developmental feedback and individuals’ self-sought feedback on creative behavior. We collected 10 days of data using experience sampling methodology to test our hypotheses with a multilevel model. Results revealed that supervisor developmental feedback and self-sought feedback from peers were positively related to feedback acceptance, which, in turn, related to activating positive affect and thereby creative behavior on a within-person basis. Finally, feedback acceptance and activating positive affect mediated the within-person association between feedback and creative behavior. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for better understanding how organizations formally shape individuals’ behavior and how individuals proactively supplement those attempts.