What’s the narrative for practice? A review of recommendations on feedback and a guide to writing impactful practical implications

Abstract

Research on supervisory feedback has burgeoned over the past 20 years. We ask, what does it have to offer to management practitioners, and is this knowledge conveyed in a constructive way? To answer these questions, we conducted a systematic literature review of the practical implications contained in feedback studies. Based on our retained articles (N = 120) and using the W-H questions as our guiding framework, we critically discuss: Why recommendations are offered, What recommendations are endorsed, When and Where the recommendations are presented as most applicable, to Whom those are addressed, and How they are framed by researchers. In so doing, we summarise the indications that scientific research has offered to practitioners; moreover, following the same framework and the insights collected via a follow-up survey of academics (N = 61), we provide recommendations to researchers across the management and psychology disciplines on how to craft their practical implications sections in a way that may help bridge the gap between research and practice.