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Introduction
The combination of rapid advancements in knowledge and technology, an aging workforce, globalisation, and increased competition require organisations to innovate and learn continuously (Burke and Ng, 2006; Govaerts et al. , 2011). From a human resources perspective, the learning and development of employees has increased in importance (Clarke, 2005). A majority of what employees learn at work is informal, and is learned from on-the-job interactions with people with whom they work (Tannenbaum et al. , 2010).Research highlights the relevance of informal social interactions in the workplace (Westerberg and Hauer, 2009; Eraut, 2007). Given this social nature of learning in the workplace, the ways in which professionals actively form and use their interpersonal relations has become an increasing focus in the literature (Grant and Ashford, 2008; Hakkarainen et al. , 2004; Westerberg and Hauer, 2009).
In this respect, it is shown that one of the key components of informal learning processes in the workplace is feedback (Tannenbaum et al. , 2010). Feedback can be seen a form of learning by questioning one ' s own behaviour and interest in gaining new information (Hattie and Timperley, 2007).
Recent research on feedback indicates that employees do not passively wait for feedback during annual performance reviews, but proactively seek feedback during daily interactions at work (Ashford et al. , 2003; Crant, 2000; Grant and Ashford, 2008). Feedback seeking refers to the proactive search by individuals for informal, day-to-day feedback information (Krasman, 2010). In the last decades, interest in feedback seeking has grown and research has recognised feedback seeking as an important individual and organisational resource (Ashford, 1986; Ashford and Cummings, 1983; Gupta et al. , 1999). Moreover, feedback seeking is considered as an important step in proactive performance improvement. High levels of feedback seeking behaviour within organisations seem to impact the amount of employees who are actively aiming to improve their performance (Barner-Rasmussen, 2003; Gupta et al. , 1999).
However, most research on feedback seeking has focused on lower-level employees, and relatively little is known about the dynamics of feedback seeking of employees across different hierarchical levels (Ashford et al. , 2003; Millward et al. , 2010). It is assumed that the position of an employee in the organisational hierarchy is important in explaining their feedback seeking...