The Role of Contextual Antecedents in Dialogic Feedback

The purpose of this study is to explore which contextual antecedents play a role in the feedback dialogue by employees. Two research questions are answered. First, to what extent do employees engage in a feedback dialogue? Second, what are the contextual antecedents of dialogic feedback? This study referred to the vast amount of research in feedback seeking behaviour and its contextual antecedents and questions the extent to which findings in this strand of research apply to dialogic feedback. The study was conducted in a new secondary school. The critical incident technique was used. Interviews were held with 15 employees (coordinator and teaching staff). The results of the study showed that feedback dialogue occurred in eight critical incidents. The relevance of seven contextual antecedents of feedback dialogue was shown: uncertainty, work pressure, target-related antecedents, structural antecedents, leadership styles, organizational culture and climate and relational antecedents. Based on the findings, we suggest practical implications and avenues for future research.

Keywords: Dialogic feedback; Feedback seeking behaviour; Contextual antecedent’s dialogic feedback