The Role Of Feedback In Western Culture

The ideas, customs and social behavior of a society are the foundations of that society’s culture and in some cultures, the custom of feedback is not practiced. Feedback is a process. The process of feedback (in a business environment) involves using verbal or non-verbal cues to communicate information about reactions to a person’s performance or reactions to a product, and this reaction is used as a basis for improvement. The following paragraphs discuss what feedback looks like across different cultures.

Companies are managed differently across the world and while it is common in western culture for a company to hire you to a role based on your past successes, as well as for you to work for many companies; In Japanese society the employees

An example could be that a British manager has said “If you have time you may want to look into that.” Other European countries which use direct communication styles of giving feedback, may not recognize the British indirect style as an instruction for action. Often in the UK you have to read between the lines to find meaning. This is another example of how culture impacts the form of feedback. Written feedback in the UK is also common in the form of an ‘employee review’ which is a form of positive feedback highlighting the progress of the employee. This is usually distributed once a month in larger firms. It often gives the employee a sense of appreciation to encourage them to stay in their job and gives them a target to work towards. The employee’s also have the opportunity to give feedback within the company despite a hierarchy structure which reflects the relaxed culture in the UK. Similarly, employees of Chinese company Huawei also get to voice ideas because feedback is essential in the company to improve ideas that will feed the future vision of the company. Positive feedback is riskier in other cultures, for example if you say a compliment to a French national too quickly they are likely to distrust you and wait for the criticisms behind the compliment-the same can

This means that the recipient of the feedback should hear, understand and accept the feedback. It can be difficult to give feedback sometimes because you can’t predict how the recipient will feel and act. Often when we make a mistake or hear something negative, it can stay in our minds long afterwards. With effective feedback, you ensure to talk about the person’s behavior and to discuss at the right moment. The right moment is crucial when delivering feedback especially if the person is going through a difficult period in their lives, this would be a time when the person is less open to feedback making it less effective when given. To give effective feedback, it has to be specific also it must be given while the person can still remember what happened. It is also important to acknowledge a person’s cultural background to give effective feedback for example in France, feedback would be more effective when given after two months rather than two weeks.

In conclusion, culture influences Feedback in companies not every company in the world values feedback as part of their business and can even hinder a business in some places where feedback has a negative effect. The feedback has to be effective and should be constructed tactfully with cultural differences in