PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK EFFECTS IN-TRAINING - THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED CONTROLLABILITY

A field experiment with 86 employees tested whether performance feedba ck that attributes past performance to factors within trainees' contro l would result in heightened software efficacy, goal commitment, posit ive mood, and learning, compared to feedback that attributes past perf ormance to factors outside trainees' control. In addition, we assessed whether the use of feedback would produce a Galatea effect, or gain i n trainees' performance that is the result of a boost in their self-ef ficacy. The results show that trainees who received feedback that attr ibuted their performance to factors within their control had higher so ftware efficacy. Software efficacy was positively related to learning (both declarative knowledge and compilation). Contrary to our expectat ions, feedback did not influence goal commitment or positive mood. Fur ther, a statistically significant Galatea effect was not obtained; how ever, feedback that attributes performance to factors outside trainees ' control was related to a decrease in software efficacy.