Turning the Table: Developing Students’ Skills in Receiving Feedback

Abstract

Developing skills in soliciting, receiving, and responding effectively to critical or negative performance feedback is at least as important as delivering feedback well. Organizational Behavior courses, however, focus almost exclusively on teaching students how to deliver feedback. The purpose of this scenario-based classroom exercise is to “turn the table,” that is, focus on the recipient in a feedback conversation and his or her processing of information about performance. Its target audience is instructors teaching undergraduate students in Organizational Behavior, Leadership, or Management Principles courses. The learning objectives emphasize understanding the barriers that get in the way of effectively responding to performance feedback, and learning techniques for overcoming them.