Browsing by Subject "Palautekulttuuri, Palaute, Itseohjautuva organisaatio"

Goals. The objective of this research is to supplement a research gap in studies that examine feedback culture in self-managing organizations. This is done by analyzing, describing, and interpreting recorded interviews where interviewees characterize the feedback culture of a self-managing organization, preferred feedback sources, and factors that affect the flow of feedback. Methods. The research material consists of 29 interviews with members of a Finnish IT organization. These interviews were conducted with a half-structured interview design. Interview tapes were analyzed by utilizing a content analysis approach with a mixture of inductive and deductive coding. Results. Interviewees described self-managing organization through a lack of immediate managers, and the greater freedom and responsibility that this creates towards individual work execution, work allocation, and performance development. Interviewees characterized the feedback culture through a lack of feedback, especially unfavorable feedback, and a feedback system. Interviewees considered the lack of feedback behavior, the lack of formal feedback systems, and unfavorable and favorable feedback as factors that affect the flow of feedback. Interviewees preferred feedback from both the organization’s external and internal sources. Work role influenced interviewees’ preferred feedback sources. Conclusion. This research supplements the research gap in studies that examine feedback culture in self-managing organizations. The findings of this research suggest that the self-managing organization model can hurt an organization’s feedback culture. By disposing of immediate managers individuals need to generate greater feedback self-management. However, this self-management does not actualize without sufficient formal feedback systems. Future studies should explore an intervention approach that simultaneously attempts to enhance the feedback culture and uphold the principles of a self-managing organization model.