The Importance of Feedback

Feedback is a response to an action. It is essentially an expression of the effect of a person’s behavior on other people. As such, it is a form of communication. In a business organization, feedback is a way of telling a worker how his or her action has affected a coworker, the work team where he or she belongs, the organization as a whole, or the clients of the organization. ((Heathfield, 2007) Perceived from the point of view of the initiator of the action, feedback could be an instrument of learning. It enables him or her to find out how his or her behavior has affected other people.

It could then serve as a basis for future action. An individual who gracefully accepts a feedback develops a better self-awareness thereby affording him or her with an opportunity for improvement. (Center for Learning and Teaching, 2003) Feedback could either be constructive or destructive. Johns Hopkins Medicine (2002) maintains that when one consciously provides a constructive feedback, he or she gives it hoping to help a coworker but when a destructive feedback is purposely given, it is done so to willfully hurt the feelings of a coworker matatu saccos.

However, giving a feedback, whether constructive or destructive, is not always done on purpose. A person providing the feedback could unconsciously give a destructive one if he or she does not know how to properly communicate a feedback. Hence, there is a need to know how to give a feedback objectively. Organizations approach the problem differently and educators teach the method in various ways. However, the general drift appears to be that first, the feedback should be given promptly.

People often misunderstand a feedback when given late already. Then the feedback should be concerned with a specific action, not focused on the character of the person who did the action. Third, the person giving the feedback should exhibit an apparent sincerity and honesty to help. Then it has to be consistent. A certain kind of feedback should be given to everybody, not just to a targeted few.