Challenging your boss with safe words: Newcomers' voice, supervisors' responses, and socialization outcomes

Abstract

As a proactive behavior, the influence of voice on the voicer remains murky. This study draws on the dual perspective model of agency and communion to examine how newcomers' constructive and supportive voice behaviors affect their adjustment during organizational socialization. We tested all hypotheses with a sample of 463 newcomers and their supervisors. The results showed that newcomers' constructive and supportive voice behaviors were important predictors of supervisors' perceptions of newcomers' agency and communion, respectively. Such perceptions also had uniquely positive associations with supervisors' (task and social) information sharing, which in turn was conducive to newcomers' socialization outcomes. In addition, the results supported the moderating role of political skill, as it amplified the influences of newcomers' voice behavior on supervisors' perceptions. From a practical standpoint, this research is helpful for understanding how newcomers speak up, and it contributes to the voice literature by disentangling the means by which constructive and supportive voice differentially facilitate newcomer adjustment.