The Bright and Dark Sides of Daily Challenging and Supportive Voice Behaviors

Abstract

Employees contribute to their organizations by voicing concerns. They can provide suggestions that support current practices (supportive voice) and suggestions that challenge how things are done in the organization (challenging voice). Prior research suggests that there are both personal gains and costs associated with individual voice behavior. As such, we attempt to integrate the bright and dark sides of employee voice behavior and focus on the interpersonal daily costs and benefits experienced by employees who engage in these two types of voice behavior. Results from a daily-diary study using experience sampling methodology (ESM) find that challenging and supportive voice have differing personal costs and benefits for the individual employee. We find that supportive voice increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; we also find that supportive voice decreases ego depletion, which then reduces daily job stress. Daily challenging voice likewise increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; however, unlike supportive voice, challenging voice increases ego depletion, which then increases daily job stress. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.