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Contemporary Accounting Research Vol. 42 No. 1 2025

Is more always better? An experimental examination of the effects of feedback frequency, narcissistic oversensitivity, and growth mindset on performance accuracy

Joseph A. Johnson1; Khim Kelly2; Wioleta Olczak3

1 Accounting Department, Darla Moore School of Business University of South Carolina Columbia South Carolina USA · 2 Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting, College of Business University of Central Florida Orlando Florida USA · 3 Accounting Department Marquette University Milwaukee Wisconsin USA

open access

Abstract

The provision of more frequent feedback to employees is increasing, although prior research has found mixed results as to the effect of increased feedback frequency on employee performance. Narcissism research identifies narcissistic oversensitivity as a key narcissistic subdimension that may result in particularly strong responses to performance feedback. We predict and find in an experiment that increased performance feedback frequency has a more negative impact on the performance accuracy of individuals with higher levels of narcissistic oversensitivity and that this negative interactive effect of feedback frequency and narcissistic oversensitivity is mitigated by the priming of a growth mindset. These results should be of practical interest to firms as they design their management control systems to improve employee performance, considering the variation in narcissistic oversensitivity among their employees. These results also contribute to recent accounting research on the effects of feedback frequency and employee mindsets.

DOI
10.1111/1911-3846.13005
Volume
42
Issue
1
Pages
418-445
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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