ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the role of self-motives in understanding feedback interventions. It reviews previous research in organizational settings and explores how self-motive activation may guide two key criteria in feedback processes, namely feedback reactions and feedback-seeking behavior. The chapter introduces future work selves and outlines how construal level theory of psychological distance can help understand when and how self-improvement motives may prevail over self-enhancement motives. It proposes how future work selves determine the level of construal people use when seeking and responding to feedback. The chapter provides a model of the feedback process integrating the concepts of psychological distance and future work selves. It deals with practical implications of the new perspective for feedback interventions in organizations. Feedback is a key aspect of how employees regulate their efforts and performance in organizations. A strand of feedback research that evolved in relative isolation from the study of feedback reactions focuses on when and how people decide to seek feedback themselves.
