Only time will tell: How teams centralize their voice around competent members over time to perform better

Abstract

SummaryWe posit that time significantly impacts how voice—members' expression of work‐related ideas—becomes unequally distributed within teams. Building upon insights from expectation states theory (EST), we propose that over time, voice becomes more centralized in teams, especially around members who are more competent than others. Moreover, we argue that teams whose members are higher in conscientiousness or openness to experience are better able to place more competent members in central speaking roles early on as well as progressively replace less competent members with more competent ones in those roles. Finally, we predict that, in comparison to teams that have egalitarian voice distributions, those that end up with more centralized voice distributions perform better when they give their most competent members more dominant speaking roles and perform worse when they do not. We found general support for these arguments in a study using four waves of data collected over time from 175 student project teams. Thus, we highlight how voice centralization does not always have negative consequences for teams but can benefit teams in certain circumstances. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.