The Mixed Blessing of Turning down Employee Voice with Humor: Implications for Subsequent Voice

Abstract

Not all employee suggestions can be implemented. How do you turn down suggestions while ensuring employees will voice in the future? In this study, we examine the implications of leaders’ use of humor when turning down employees’ constructive, voiced suggestions. Drawing on social information processing theory, we propose that the use of humor is beneficial for voice safety but detrimental for voice efficacy and, accordingly, indirectly impacts future voice behavior. We also hypothesized that the degree of interpersonal sensitivity that leaders employ in turning down voice with humor will moderate these relationships, such that it strengthens the positive effect of humor on voice safety and weakens the negative effect of humor on voice efficacy. Our study among 345 workers, using a time-lagged design, supported our overall model. Results indicate that using humor when turning down voice can be a double-edged sword in terms of affecting employees’ future voice and using interpersonal sensitivity may be an effective way of capitalizing on the benefits of humor in turning down employee voice. We discuss implications for theory, research, and practice.