In Sion, does a manager's feedback really help people improve?
For SHR — Swiss Human Resources' “Leadership d'excellence” programme, feedback raises a question more specific than how often it should be given. Under what conditions does a manager's feedback help improve the work, rather than shift attention towards judgements about the individual?
What the literature establishes
Avraham N. Kluger and Angelo DeNisi (1996, Psychological Bulletin) show in their meta-analysis that feedback interventions improve performance on average, but can also impair it. Their theoretical framework proposes that effects depend partly on where feedback directs attention: towards the task, task motivation or the self. Information about an operational discrepancy is therefore not equivalent to an overall judgement about an employee.
Feedback needs a goal as its reference point
Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham (2002, American Psychologist) synthesise research showing the value of specific, challenging goals under certain conditions, including commitment, ability and feedback. Feedback then helps people compare their work with a target and adjust their effort or strategy. For a new or complex task, however, specifying an expected outcome does not remove the need to develop the means of achieving it.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that managers simply need to give more feedback and set tighter goals. These studies do not justify that rule: frequent feedback can sustain a focus on personal judgement, while an unsuitable target can direct effort towards something of little value. The skill to develop is therefore not just candour, but the ability to make a correction understandable and feasible. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot promise
The meta-analysis brings together heterogeneous tasks and interventions; it does not demonstrate that one feedback script suits every workplace situation. The review of goal-setting research does not evaluate either the “Leadership d'excellence” programme or organisations in Sion. Moreover, appreciating a conversation and making a lasting change in practice are distinct outcomes: a satisfaction survey cannot establish the latter.
A practical check in Sion
Within the programme, SHR could invite managers in Sion and the surrounding region to test task-focused feedback on a recurring activity: communicating a maintenance instruction in hydropower, conducting a healthcare handover, documenting a vineyard operation or informing visitors in Alpine tourism. For each feedback exchange, record the observable discrepancy, the agreed correction and the next opportunity to check its implementation, without changing safety protocols or recording sensitive personal data. The indicator would be the proportion of corrections actually implemented among those due for verification, compared between an initial period and a trial period of equal duration. This local comparison would document a change without, on its own, establishing a causal effect of the training. To go further: explore the Executive Leadership training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Executive Leadership in Sion
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