Action Research Action Learning and Process Management Assoc. Inc. 

A L A R P M  Conference Abstracts

Solutions outside the square   
Practitioner Development Conference
Bardon Conference Centre,
Brisbane, Australia, 12 - 13 July, 1998

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Stewart Arnold
"Performance feedback:  getting the right answers means asking the right questions."

Giving feedback to people about aspects of their performance, particularly at work, has always been problematic. Often people avoid feedback, ignore it, or respond negatively to it. A huge amount of applied research has yielded mixed findings; there appears to be no easy answer to the question: "How do we give effective feedback in the workplace?"

However, the research has indicated a series of questions which can be asked of individuals or organisations to guide their learning from feedback about employee performance. An Action research approach can lead people to a better understanding of how to benefit from performance feedback.

Process

1. Participants are to think about their own work "performance" ahead of the workshop and come with their ideas of how feedback should be communicated to them individually

2. At the workshop, the presenter will encourage pairwise discussion of participant ideas to set the scene for mutual examination of the issues

3. The presenter will then outline the problems associated with performance feedback from an applied research perspective.

4. Participants will then talk, in small groups, about the key questions which can be asked of people to help them establish meaningful performance feedback for themselves

5. The presenter will collect these ideas and integrate them with a simple model of the influences on performance feedback.

6. Participants will then be given the opportunity to adapt this model for their own use and to talk through the potential problems with other participants.

The presenter

Stewart Arnold is an organisational psychologist with the consulting firm Change Focus. He has both research and consulting experience in examining and changing performance feedback practices in private and public sector organisations.  

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ALARPM Assoc. Inc. PO Box 1748 Toowong   Qld   4066	Phone:  +617 3870 9812 Fax:        +617 3870 4013 Email:   alarpm@uq.net.au
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