How does managerial consultation backfire pertaining to employee voice pressure?

Abstract

In response to managerial consultation, employees are likely to be pressured yes-persons. In this paper, we propose the concept of voice pressure and explore its antecedent of managerial consultation and differential voice consequences (i.e. challenging vs. supportive voice). Using a time-lagged survey of 346 employees and their direct leaders in mainland China, we found that managerial consultation could lead to employee voice pressure. We also found that after controlling for the social exchange mechanism (i.e. leader-member exchange) and enabling mechanism (i.e. voice efficacy), the ‘managerial consultation-voice pressure-challenging voice’ relationship is negative, while the ‘managerial consultation-voice pressure-supportive voice’ relationship is positive. Furthermore, these indirect relationships are pronounced when employee power distance orientation is higher (vs. lower). We provide a new perspective for the interpretation of managerial consultation; it puts voice pressure on employees and makes them more likely to be managers’ yes-persons. Therefore, managers who expect constructive challenging ideas should conduct consultation selectively and discreetly according to employees’ attitudes towards power inequalities (i.e. power distance orientation).