The Double-Edged Sword Effect of Leaders’ Negative Feedback on Work Engagement

As a precise and constructive form of feedback, leaders’ negative feedback is particularly important for employees’ personal development and organizational effectiveness improvement. This study systematically explores the divergent pathways through which leaders’ negative feedback influences employees’ work engagement from the perspective of cognitive appraisal, thereby revealing its “double-edged sword” nature. This study employs structural equation modeling and regression analysis to empirically analyze multi-time point survey data collected from employees across multiple industries. The results indicate that leaders’ negative feedback has a significant positive impact on both challenge appraisal and hindrance appraisal. Challenge appraisal promotes employees’ work engagement, whereas hindrance appraisal inhibits it. Relational identification positively moderates the relationship between leaders’ negative feedback and challenge appraisal, and negatively moderates the relationship between leaders’ negative feedback and hindrance appraisal. This study provides a more comprehensive and dialectical perspective for relevant research on leaders’ negative feedback, and offers theoretical support and practical guidance for enterprises to enhance work engagement by reasonably guiding employees’ cognitive appraisal in management practice.