Receiving Criticism in a Workplace Setting: How Content of Criticism and Group Membership of the Critic Predict Emotional Responses and Behavioural Change.

Abstract

When being criticised, people often experience negative emotions. This emotional response to criticism could affect behavioural change. In a workplace setting, it is especially important that criticism results in a positive behavioural change to ensure good job performance. However, people could react to criticism with a negative emotion or counterproductive work behaviour, which could harm the organisation. Therefore, it is important that the emotional and behavioural responses to criticism and their predictive factors are researched well. In this study, open-ended questions from previous research of Rösler, Van Nunspeet, and Ellemers (in prep.) were coded and analysed. Content of criticism and group membership of the critic were examined as predictors of emotional and behavioural responses to criticism in a workplace setting (N = 196). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed, which indicated that participants more often respond with negative emotions directed at others when criticised by an out-group member, and that behavioural change more often occurred when the critic was an in-group member. Exploratory analyses showed that participants more often expressed agreement with criticism on competence than on morality, and when participants expressed agreement with the received criticism they were more likely to change their behaviour. These findings show that the characteristics of the criticism plays a predictive role on emotion and behaviour, and demonstrate the importance of examining other potential predictors for organisational well-being and job performance.