Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 537
Rankings up, defects unchanged
Feedback Intervention Theory explains why accurate evaluation can impair performance when it redirects attention away from task learning
Premise
Giving people performance information does not guarantee better performance. A rating can prompt useful correction, more effort, anxiety about status, or defensiveness. Feedback Intervention Theory (FIT) locates the difference in where the message directs attention: toward learning the task, regulating effort, or evaluating the self.
A senior leader reviewing feedback systems must therefore ask what the recipient can do next, not merely whether the evaluation is candid, favorable, or frequent. An accurate message can still compete for attention that the work requires. A poor process or insufficient authority cannot be fixed by adjusting feedback tone.
What the model is: Feedback Intervention Theory in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainEvidence & Evaluation
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.