THE IMPACT OF POSITIVE AND CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON CUSTOMER SERVICE PERFORMANCE

Determining and interpreting the impact that different types of feedba ck have on performance has been difficult because there are a number o f complex theoretical processes or mechanisms involved. To minimize so me of this complexity and rule out possible alternate explanations in this study subjects in highly routine tasks were used (111 employees f rom 11 fast food restaurants). A quasi-experimental field design compa red the effects of positive versus corrective feedback. The term corre ctive feedback is deliberately used instead of negative feedback becau se of the close association that negative feedback has with noxious, p unishment-based feedback. In this study, the term corrective is more d escriptive of the type of feedback given to subjects, but the term neg ative could be substituted when making comparisons with the literature on feedback. The corrective feedback in this study is based on a cybe rnetic, self regulation model and the positive feedback is based on a behavioral reward approach. Consistent with the Closed Loop Model of S elf Regulation, the results showed that positive feedback did not impr ove performance. The control group improved significantly more than th e positive feedback group. However, the corrective feedback group did not perform significantly different from the control group. A secondar y part of the study examined the impact that the two types of feedback had on non-performance variables of commitment, satisfaction and feed back acceptability. These latter results were mixed. The theoretical a nd practical implications of these performance and non-performance res ults are discussed.