Exploring the effects of informal feedback on organizational outcomes in academic libraries

Abstract

Informal feedback processes are becoming increasingly important across all organizations, including academic libraries. In addition to the dissatisfaction of employees with formal feedback, many issues with formal feedback processes have been studied and reported on over recent years. As informal feedback becomes more prevalent, it is critical for library organizations to understand elements of informal feedback processes and how they impact both employee and organizational outcomes. This study analyzes two important elements of informal feedback processes that are often undervalued, or sometimes lost, in formal feedback procedures: the employee-manager relationship (through supervisor source credibility) and individual employee characteristics (through feedback orientation). This online study of academic library workers (n = 231) analyzed how these informal elements relate to the organizational outcomes of affective commitment and turnover intention. Findings show supervisor source credibility and feedback orientation are both positively related to affective commitment. Only supervisor source credibility, the organization-related variable, was related to turnover intention. Practical implications for academic library managers and future research directions are discussed.