The Effects of Feedback Modality on Performance

Giving employees information about their performance is a common method for employers seeking to improve or change performance. Today, internet- and computer-delivered feedback is often provided through e-mails, text messages, and video meetings. While feedback has continued to evolve both within and across organizations, little work has been done to assess how various modalities might impact its effectiveness. Understanding the effective delivery of feedback is important for supervisors looking to conduct evaluations with remote workers or simply save time as emerging technology presents new delivery options. This study explored and evaluated the relationship between the modality in which objective feedback is delivered, and the differential effects it produced on performance of a check entering task. This experiment was a laboratory study employing a between-group repeated measures design with random assignment to one of the following four experimental conditions; 1) no feedback, 2) computer-delivered feedback, 3) feedback via cell phone text message and, 4) feedback via face-to-face interaction. Results demonstrated the superiority of face-to-face feedback delivery and suggest interesting patterns for other feedback modalities.