The positive impact of guilt: How and when feedback affect employee learning in the workplace

Abstract

Purpose

A self-regulatory framework to explore the positive effects of negative emotions on proactive outcomes for employees is discussed. The purpose of this paper is to examine how and when employee feedback can facilitate feelings of guilt and result in positive learning behaviors in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors test the research model using data from field surveys based on a two-wave data collection from 176 employees. Participants completed two paper-based surveys with a time lag of one week.

Findings

The results demonstrate that the feelings of guilt work as a mediator in the association between feedback and employee learning. As a specific negative emotion, guilt has a significant and positive impact on employee learning in the workplace. The findings also demonstrate that transformational leadership can make employees aware of the gap between expectations and their performance. Transformational leaders motivate guilty employees to engage in learning activities through the promotion of regulatory focus.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on emotions and employee learning in several ways. First, the study raises the association between feedback and employee learning through guilt in the workplace. Second, the study considers the boundaries for facilitating learning behaviors.

Citation

Liu, W. and Xiang, S. (2018), "The positive impact of guilt: How and when feedback affect employee learning in the workplace", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 883-898. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-10-2017-0296