Feedback and Control for Everyone

Question: Describe about the Feedback and Control for Everyone? Answer: Introduction Training and feedback are the two important factors that shape the career of an employee. Training enhances the ability of an individual and feedback enhances the employee to work harder for the betterment of the career. However, other than enhancing the performance of the employee, feedback and training also helps an organization to grow as a whole. Feedback from the authorities regarding a certain work done by the employee will motivate the employees to perform better. After recruiting the employees for an organization, the employees could be given some training, which will again help to enhance the performance of the employees. The better the employees will perform the more successful will be the organization where these employees are working. As a result, both the organization and the employees will be benefitted by effective feedback and training. Positive And Negative Feedback Feedback can be classified into two types: Positive feedback As the name suggests, provided an employee performs well, it results in positive feedback that in turn conditions the employee to work harder and perform better in future (Albertos and Mareels, 2010). Negative feedback Provided that an employee fails to perform that the organization has expected the employee to do, the employee will receive a negative feedback. It is upon the employee regarding the perception of the feedback; the employee can take the negative feedback as a challenge and work harder to achieve the goal (Armstrong and Armstrong, 2011). Training Understanding the work Training helps the employees to understand the work more effectively. As it is said, experience is the best teacher. Though every individual is recruited by depending on the individual capacity and knowledge, yet after recruitment training will help the employees to understand the work. Addition to the understanding of the work, training helps the employee to understand the goals of the work, achievements and so on. By understanding the company, the employees will get motivated by knowing the set goals and will work for the betterment of the company (Small Business - Chron.com, 2015). Improvement Other than training of an individual, training of a group, department or team helps in improving g the work quality. Training a group will help the team members to know the needs of the group and the members will also learn to cooperate and work together rather than work individually (Young, n.d.). Career development Employees join an organization not just to work for the organization but to develop the career as a whole. Training will help the employees to understand the path of the career growth, what are the qualities the employees already possess and which are the area that needs improvement. Training will help the employees to learn about the managerial skills, new business ideas that can be implemented in the future during the employees progress in the career (Stewart and Brown, 2014). Training as a message Whenever an organization provides training to the employees, the company sends out a message that they want the employees to grow in the career. Training of the employees shows that the organization values the employees. Along with the organizational growth, the organization thinks about the growth and development of the employees (McNally and Blake, 2010). Comparison Of Literature Findings From Alexander And John Hattie According to the authors, feedback can be classified into three types: Valid feedback As the name suggests, this kind of feedback depends upon the quality of work the employee is delivering or has delivered in the past. It depends upon the validity of work. For example, suppose a teacher starts giving extra stars to the students rather than normal checking the work, the more number of stars will motivate the student to work harder in future, and if the number of stars is not that good, then also the student will try to enhance the work to keep up the pace with the other students. Similar formula applies to an organization, positive feedback will enhance the performance, and negative feedback will help the employee to understand where the work is getting neglected and work harder to fulfill the requirements (Mayer and Alexander, 2011). Unjustified feedback Unjustified feedback is the type of feedback that is given to employee depending upon the personality of the employee. This kind of feedback is surely not justified by the part of the company. By judging the personality of an individual, an organization cannot judge the quality of work the individual will be able to deliver. Until and unless the organization witnesses the performance of the employee, it is not justified to give an unjustified feedback. Unjustified feedback, when teamed up with valid feedback, can be effective. Suppose in the past the employee has not reacted to any of the feedback, and then the organization will have an idea about whether the employee will react to any further feedback or remain unaffected as usual. In this case, unjustified feedback can be justified as the organization has already tried helps the employee, but it is the employee who has not tried to rectify the action (Armstrong and Cummins, 2011). Vague feedback Vague feedback can be slightly confusing for the employees as well as the reader. Vague does neither has any validity nor is it based on any true performance. Vague feedback is given to the employees who are not able to perform well in the organization. Even if the employee is not able to perform, the organization praises the work. It can work in two ways. Either the employee will get motivated and work harder or the employee will become laidback with the work. If the employee is true to the work, the employee will work harder after getting the feedback. Vague feedback can affect the employee negatively as well. The employee may stop working harder as positive feedback has already been received after contributing less amount of work. Contrast Among The Different Literature Findings On one hand, Alexander argues that the effective feedback will alter the behavior of the employees, as a result, will affect the performance of the employees. On the other hand, John Hattie emphasizes that the time when the feedback is given affects the perception of the employees. For example, an employee receives a feedback when that individual is going through a bad phase in personal life, the feedback might affect the mental condition of the individual and the performance may deteriorate rather than getting enhanced. So on one hand, Alexander stresses on behavior and the other hand, John Hattie stresses on time (Hattie, 2012). Regarding the outcome of the feedback, Alexander and John Hatties ideas contrast with each other. Alexander categorizes the outcome as positive, negative and neutral while John Hattie categorizes it as personal visualization. According to Alexander, the outcome of the feedback can be positive, as discussed earlier motivate the employee to work harder, it can be negative, can de-motivate the employee and the level of performance may go down and can result in neutral reaction, which means, neither it will enhance the performance, nor it will degrade the performance (Bruce and Pepitone, 2012). According to John Hattie outcome of feedback, totally depends upon the perception of the employee. Suppose the employee perceives the feedback as an opportunity to go ahead in the career the outcome will be positive and if the employee perceives it as not a factor that will come in the way of growth of career then the outcome will be negative (Latham, 2012). Regarding the effect in a performance of the employee due to the feedback, according to Alexander, it depends upon the firm on how the employees are given the feedback and the employees react accordingly. Provided that, an organization gives a negative feedback in a healthy manner then it will affect the performance in a positive way. Suppose the authority presents the feedback in a harsh way, the employee will get de-motivated but once the same feedback is given in a polite form, it will work differently on the employee. On the other hand, according to John Hattie, the effect in performance depends upon the action plan of the employee after receiving the feedback from the organization. According to him, it is not the organization but the employee who handles the performance. The feedback can be negative or positive; it is how the employee acts after receiving the feedback is the main concern regarding the performance (Fishbach and R. Finkelstein, 2015). Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that both training and feedback affects the performance of the employees. Training most of the time has positive effects on the employees. Training educates the employees to learn more about the company as well about the work, provides the employees with proper vision to march ahead, gives the employees opportunities to enhance the career and so on. On the other hand, feedback can have both negative and positive effects. Feedback can either motivate or de-motivate the employees in work. Positive feedback can affect the employees either by motivating or the employees may get over-confident, and that can lead to a decrease in quality of work. Negative feedback can affect the employee in two different ways, negative feedback either can de-motivate the employees, or the employee can take it as a challenge and work for betterment. References Albertos, P. and Mareels, I. (2010). Feedback and Control for Everyone. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Armstrong, M. and Armstrong, M. (2011). Armstrong's handbook of strategic human resource management. London: Kogan Page. Armstrong, M. and Cummins, A. (2011). The reward management toolkit. London: Kogan Page. Bruce, A. and Pepitone, J. (2012). Motivating employees. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Professional. Fishbach, A. and R. Finkelstein, S. (2015). How Feedback Influences Persistence, Disengagement, and Change in Goal Pursuit. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ayelet.fishbach/research/Feedback_Frontiers.pdf [Accessed 1 Aug. 2015]. Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers. London: Routledge. Latham, G. (2012). Work motivation. 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