Supervisor positive feedback and employee performance: Promotion focus as a mediator

We explored the influence of supervisor positive feedback on employees’ in-role and extrarole performance, and the mediating role of promotion focus in these relationships. Data were gathered at three time points from 373 Chinese employees and their immediate supervisors. We used hierarchical linear regression and the PROCESS macro to test our hypotheses. The results show that supervisor positive feedback was positively related to promotion focus, which was also positively related to employees’ in-role and extrarole performance. In addition, promotion focus mediated the supervisor positive feedback–employee performance relationship. Our findings suggest that organizational managers should provide employees with positive feedback to improve their promotion focus, thereby enhancing employees’ in-role and extrarole performance.