Upward feedback: what happens to a reported problem?
Feedback is often taught as a message a manager delivers to an employee. Another management question deserves attention: when an employee reports a work-related problem to their manager, how can the follow-up be made observable?
What the literature establishes
James R. Detert and Ethan R. Burris (2007, Academy of Management Journal) examined links between leadership behaviours and employees' expression of suggestions or concerns intended to improve organisational functioning. Their findings associate managerial openness with this voice behaviour and support a mediating role for psychological safety. A formal invitation to speak is therefore not the same as the openness employees perceive.
The interpersonal risk behind reporting a problem
Amy Edmondson (1999, Administrative Science Quarterly) identified an association between psychological safety and learning behaviour in work teams. Reporting an error or asking for help can expose someone to others' judgement; psychological safety refers to a shared belief that the team is safe for taking such interpersonal risks. This mechanism helps explain why having a reporting channel does not, by itself, make using it straightforward.
The hasty conclusion
One might conclude that managers must accept every suggestion to protect employees' willingness to speak. These studies do not warrant that conclusion: making expression possible does not mean agreeing with every request. Separating the reception of a report, its examination and the final decision is a possible practical approach, not a protocol validated by these studies. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot settle
These field studies do not directly test the effect of a documented response to every reported problem. They neither establish a universal response deadline nor show that greater traceability alone improves performance. A log can also become an administrative formality if it records acknowledgements without making decisions understandable.
A practical check in Fribourg
Within SHR — Swiss Human Resources' programme « L'art du feedback », one possible exercise in Fribourg is to track problems raised in an agri-food team, a bilingual industrial workshop or a university-sector service. For four weeks, record each non-confidential report with a date, a person responsible for follow-up and an agreed deadline, using the working language agreed with the person raising it. At the end, calculate the proportion of reports whose deadlines have been reached that have received a reasoned response accessible to their author: an agreed action, an explained refusal or an extended review with a new deadline. This rate measures the traceability of follow-up, not problem resolution or freedom to speak; sensitive reports remain within the designated protected channels. To go further: explore the The Art of Feedback training in Fribourg, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: The Art of Feedback in Fribourg
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