Feedback: can appreciation turn into pressure?
Within the SHR — Swiss Human Resources programme « L'art du feedback », one question deserves separate attention: how can managers recognise successful work without turning recognition into a means of control? In Genève, this matters particularly when compliance, quality or reputational requirements leave little room for an explicit discussion of autonomy.
What the literature establishes
Richard Ryan (1982, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) distinguishes the informational function of feedback from its controlling function in experimental settings. A positive message can support a sense of competence, but its effect on intrinsic motivation also depends on the pressure it conveys. Saying that work was successful and making approval feel conditional on future conformity are therefore not the same intervention.
The mechanism: competence and autonomy are not the same
Edward Deci, Richard Koestner and Richard Ryan (1999, Psychological Bulletin) show, in a meta-analysis of experiments, that positive feedback can support interest in an activity and its continuation under free-choice conditions. These findings sit within a distinction between information about competence and what is experienced as external control. Employees may therefore feel capable while believing that they are working mainly to retain their manager's approval.
The hasty conclusion
One might conclude that managers simply need to remove directive wording or let everyone choose their own standards. That would confuse support for autonomy with an absence of requirements: a mandatory rule can be stated explicitly, with its rationale, rather than disguised as a compliment. The managerial question concerns the function of appreciation, not the abandonment of professional obligations. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot promise
These experimental studies do not demonstrate that rewording feedback produces lasting performance improvements in a private bank or an international organisation in Genève. Reported interest and voluntary continuation of an activity are not equivalent to the quality of a professional decision made under constraints. In practice, the history of the relationship and the consequences attached to evaluation can make a message controlling even when its wording appears open.
A practical check in Genève
As part of « L'art du feedback », SHR could propose an internal trial: after positive feedback on a recurring task, collect anonymous responses to two separate statements, ‘I know what was successful’ and ‘I felt obliged to seek my manager's approval’. The task could involve a private-banking file, a briefing note in an international organisation, a quality check in luxury watchmaking or an operational handover in commodity trading, without relaxing applicable requirements. Before and after work on feedback wording, compare the proportion of favourable responses to each item, reporting respondent numbers and keeping team results separate. Greater clarity without increased perceived pressure would be a useful local signal, not proof of improved performance. To go further: explore the The Art of Feedback training in Geneva in the canton of Geneva, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: The Art of Feedback in Geneva
- the art of feedback
- Geneva
- research
- training geneva