Barriers and Bridges to Developmental Information Transfer

Abstract

With the rise in complex, collaborative, and often subjective work, employees rely on those around them for the information they need to make good decisions, improve their performance, and contribute to organizational success. Although the interactions underpinning the transfer of these developmental insights – the delivery of advice and feedback – are inherently informational, they are also interpersonal. This dissertation advances the understanding of developmental interactions by moving beyond prior research that has largely considered these processes from an informational, recipient-focused perspective. Across three chapters, this dissertation sheds new light on the role of interpersonal motives in driving developmental interaction outcomes by illuminating the viewpoints of developmental information providers. Chapter 1 focuses on the psychology of advice providers, theorizing the array of motives, beyond information transfer, that drive advisors to provide advice, and the related advice-giving outcomes advisors may aim to achieve. Chapter 2 empirically examines how advice providers’ motives drive their interpersonal responses to advice seekers. In a series of experiments and surveys, I find that advisors interpersonally penalize both seekers who do not follow their advice and seekers who consult multiple advisors (as multiple-advice seeking increases advisor perceptions that their own advice will not be followed). Chapter 3 examines how feedback providers’ motives influence the content and value of the feedback they provide. Specifically, drawing from an archival study of 1,145 written feedback comments, a business case simulation, and a two-wave survey of 2,304 employees, I find that feedback givers who feel psychologically distant from their recipient deliver more specific feedback, which is perceived as more useful. The effect is mediated by givers’ motivation to provide helpful feedback.