Prosocial Voice Research Articles

The curvilinear relationship between job satisfaction and employee voice: Speaking up for the organization and the self

Integrating the self-serving effect of voice with the literature that emphasizes the prosocial motive of voice behavior, this study investigates the possibility of a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between job satisfaction and voice behavior. The findings show that different voice beliefs (employees’ prosocial and self-protective voice beliefs) moderate the U-shaped curvilinear relationship with distinct patterns. Specifically, for employees with a stronger prosocial voice belief the relationship between job satisfaction and voice is more positive at high levels of job satisfaction and less negative at low levels of job satisfaction. Self-protective voice belief attenuates the relationship between job satisfaction and voice at both high and low levels of job satisfaction, resulting in a less U-shaped relationship for employees with a stronger self-protective voice belief. These findings support our arguments about the coexistence of multiple motives of voice and their relative strength across different levels of job satisfaction.

Formal voice mechanisms and portfolio career workers’ prosocial voice in Japan and Korea: the mediating role of managers’ issue-related leadership activities

ABSTRACTThis study analyses the relationship between formal voice mechanisms and prosocial voice among portfolio career workers (PCWs) in Japan and Korea. We particularly focus on the leadership activities of managers as human resource management agents and issue sellers. Under similar conditions, data on 400 and 409 PCWs in Japan and Korea, respectively, are gathered through web-based longitudinal surveys conducted in 2017 and 2018. The findings are threefold. First, when PCWs perceive that formal voice mechanisms are activated, they also rate the levels of their managers’ issue-related leadership activities more highly. Second, when PCWs evaluate the issue-related leadership activities of managers as being at a high level, they perceive that employment relations are based on a social exchange relationship. Third, when PCWs perceive employment relations based on a social exchange relationship, they provide their prosocial voice more actively. These results are discussed relative to the internal labour market models of Japan and Korea.

Employee Work Performance Mediates Empowering Leader Behavior and Employee Voice

Drawing on the practical perspective of empowerment, we investigated how empowering leader behavior influences employee voice via in-role (i.e., task performance) and extrarole (i.e., organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals) performances, and examined the moderating effect of work stress on the empowering leader behavior–employee voice process. Using multiwave data from 996 supervisor–subordinate dyads, we found that empowering leader behavior promoted employee prosocial voice via organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals, whereas it prohibited employee acquiescent voice and defensive voice via task performance. Further, work stress attenuated empowering leader behavior's indirect effect on prosocial voice via organizational citizenship behaviors toward individuals, whereas it augmented empowering leader behavior's indirect effects on employee acquiescent voice and defensive voice via task performance, respectively.

Voicing concerns for greater engagement

PurposeScholars argue that supervisor’s job insecurity may affect subordinates’ work engagement. Moreover, this relationship may be mediated by subordinates’ pro-social voice and the relationship between the supervisor’s job insecurity and subordinates’ pro-social voice may be moderated by organizational culture. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to examine the mediating role of the subordinate’s pro-social voice between supervisor’s job insecurity and subordinates’ work engagement. Second, to test the moderating role of organizational culture between supervisor’s job insecurity and the subordinates’ pro-social voice.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered from employees of a large hospital in India using face-to-face data cross-sectional survey method. To test the proposed hypotheses, ordinary least squares regression analysis was performed on the data obtained.FindingsThe results indicated support for the proposed model in two ways. First, the subordinate’s pro-social voice mediated the relationship between supervisor’s job insecurity and the subordinate’s work engagement. Second, organizational culture acted as a moderator between supervisor’s job insecurity and the subordinate’s pro-social voice.Research limitations/implicationsThe results augment social exchange theory by identifying the crucial role that voicing concerns plays in reducing the negative impact of supervisor’s job insecurity on the subordinates’ work engagement.Practical implicationsThe study findings encourage managers to create an organizational culture that allows the subordinates to challenge their supervisor’s decisions.Originality/valueTo the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study to test job insecurity of the supervisors instead of the same respondents as a predictor of pro-social voice.

Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing effect of Prosocial Silence and Voice

Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing effect of Prosocial Silence and Voice

Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing effect of Prosocial Silence and Voice

This study assesses the effects of prosocial silence and voice on organizational citizenship behaviors directed towards individuals under the “Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing” theory. It is assumed that greater prosocial silence and voice lead to organizational citizenship. However, the theory of too-much-of-a-good-thing suggests that extreme behaviors may perversely have a negative effect raising the possibility that the relationship is curvilinear rather than linear. A similar nonlinear relationship is suggested in this study. Standardized measures of prosocial voice, prosocial silence and organizational citizenship were collected from 381 faculty members from three mid-cycle universities. Regression analyses revealed a significant curvilinear (an inverted U-Shaped) relationship between prosocial voice and organizational citizenship and likewise prosocial silence and organizational citizenship. Too little and, similarly, too much prosocial voice and silence were associated with worse organizational citizenship.

When leadership elicits voice: Evidence for a mediated moderation model

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine the influence of humble and empowering leader behaviors on the prosocial voice of subordinates. We also investigate subordinate power distance orientation as a possible moderator of this relationship and subordinate psychological empowerment as the underlying mechanism behind this moderated effect. Findings from 306 employees of a Korean business conglomerate indicated that humble and empowering leadership were positively related to the prosocial voice of subordinates, and the moderation effects of subordinates’ power distance orientation between these two types of leader behaviors and subordinates’ prosocial voice were fully mediated by the extent to which they felt psychologically empowered. Our findings indicated that the moderation for the main effect between leadership and voice was caused by the significant moderating effect in the indirect path between two main variables via psychological empowerment. We conclude by highlighting implications for management practice and identifying avenues for future research.

The Role of Employee Prosocial Voice in Patient-Centered Healthcare Management

The targets of voice research in the past have been focused on the interactions between the employee and supervisor or the employee and the organizational collective, such as the work unit. Our pap...

The Effect of Supervisor Support on Employee Voice Behavior based on the Self-Determination Theory: The Moderating Effect of Impression Management Motive

Although numerous studies have adopted social exchange theory to investigate the mechanism through which leadership influences employee voice behavior, few studies have placed their focus on the mediation of employees’ basic psychological needs. To address this research gap, this study adopted self-determination theory to explore how supervisor support encourages subordinates to engage in voice behavior. Furthermore, the moderating effect of impression management motive was clarified. This study adopted structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression approach to analyze 268 sets of data of a pair of supervisor and subordinate. The results revealed that basic psychological needs mediated the relationship between supervisor support and self-determined prosocial motivation, which, in turn, was positively related to voice behavior. In addition, subordinates’ impression management motive weakens the positive relationship between self-determined prosocial motivation and voice behavior.

Organizational Voice Behaviour and its Investigation in Terms of Organizational Variables

Organizational voice described as employees’ attitude of expressing their opinions to influence organizational activities reluctantly has three varieties of “acquiescent voice” including acquiescence behaviour relying on submission; “defensive voice” including self-defence behaviour because of a certain fear; and “prosocial voice” behaviour toward others relying on cooperation; and these varieties differentiate according to the motives underneath of organizational voice. In the present study, it was investigated whether organizational voice behaviour and varieties of organizational voice behaviour significant origin of organizational change and development exhibit significant difference according to the demographical variables, or not. To that end, a survey study was conducted on the white-collar employees of the Denizli City companies ranked in the ISO 500 list. In the analysis of data collected from 202 white-collar employees, T-Test and ANOVA methods were employed. As a result of these analyses, it was revealed that organizational voice behaviour varieties displayed by employees were not significantly correlated with any demographical variable statistically.

Prosocial Motivation and Voice: The Mediating Effects of Self-Orientation versus Other-Orientation

Employee voice has being recognized as an important employee proactive behavior in the workplace and research has investigated the antecedents of voice. However, the role of prosocial motivation at...

The Relationship between Prosocial Voice and the Patient Safety Culture in the Saudi Public Hospitals

This study examines the direct linkage between prosocial voice and patient safety among public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The researcher employed the quantitative survey design for data collection, where 127 out of 251 healthcare firms were chosen in Saudi Arabia with the following division-70 organizations from the central region and 57 from the western region. The hospitals comprising the sample all operate under the oversight of the Saudi Ministry of health. The researcher distributed 30 questionnaires in each of the 127 Saudi hospitals to staff workers working in the nursing units in both regions. A total of 1793 questionnaires were returned and the rate of response was calculated by dividing the number of returned questionnaires with the total number of participants. The present study made use of regression analysis to examine the relationship between prosocial voice and patient safety culture. The findings revealed a positive and significant relationship between the two. Some recommendations for future studies were provided at the end of the study.

How Abusive Supervisors Influence Employees’ Voice and Silence: The Effects of Interactional Justice and Organizational Attribution

ABSTRACTIn this research we investigated the influence of abusive supervision on employees’ prosocial voice and silence, as well as clarified the roles of interactional justice (as a mediator) and organizational attribution (as a moderator). Moreover, we examined a mediated moderating model stipulating that interactional justice mediated the moderating effect of organizational attribution on the focal relationship. A scenario experiment was employed in Study 1, and after analyzing data from 196 employees, we found that abusive supervision influenced employees’ prosocial voice and silence via interactional justice. In Study 2, data were collected from 379 employees in two waves separated by 1 week. The results not only replicated the findings of Study 1 but also indicated that organizational attribution buffered the abusive supervision-voice and silence relationship, and that interactional justice mediated this moderating effect.

Personality and Participative Climate: Antecedents of Distinct Voice Behaviors

Based on the work of Van Dyne, Ang, and Botero (2003), the concept of voice, generally defined as speaking up, was expanded to include three types of voice behaviors: prosocial, acquiescent, and defensive. Prosocial voice is a fundamentally positive form of voice, whereas acquiescent and defensive voice behaviors reflect more negative forms of voice. We examined individual-level personality traits of Agreeableness and Extraversion and group-level participative climate as predictors of supervisor ratings of each voice behavior. Testing these ideas with a multilevel design in a sample of Chinese workers and their managers, results demonstrated support for links of Agreeableness, Extraversion, and participative climate with supervisor ratings of voice behaviors. Further, group-level participative climate moderated relationships between individual-level Agreeableness and voice behaviors.

Speaking Up vs. Being Heard: The Disagreement Around and Outcomes of Employee Voice

This paper contributes to research on the outcomes of employee prosocial voice to managers by focusing on the relationships between voice and two managerially controlled outcomes: managerial performance ratings and involuntary turnover. Past research has considered voice from either the managerial or subordinate perspective individually and found that it can lead to positive outcomes because of its improvement-oriented nature. However, others have argued that voice can lead to unfavorable outcomes for employees. To begin resolving these competing perspectives, we examine agreement and disagreement between employees and their managers on the extent to which employees provide upward voice, proposing and demonstrating that considering either perspective alone does not fully capture how voice is related to employee outcomes. Findings from a study of 7,578 subordinates and their 335 general managers within a national restaurant chain indicate that agreement between employees and managers that employees display a high level of voice leads to favorable outcomes for employees. Our findings then extend existing research by showing that supervisor–subordinate disagreement around voice also helps explain employee outcomes—namely, how negative outcomes arise as a result of employees overestimating their voice relative to their managers' perspective and how positive outcomes result when employees underestimate their upward voice.

Hearing voice and silence during stressful economic times

PurposeIt is ironic that in stressful economic times, when new ideas and positive behaviors could be most valuable, employees may not speak up, leading to reduced employee participation, less organizational learning, less innovation and less receptiveness to change. The supervisor is the organization's first line of defense against a culture of silence and towards a culture of openness. The purpose of this paper is to ask what helps supervisors to hear prosocial voice and notice defensive silence.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a cross‐sectional field study of 142 supervisors.FindingsThe results indicate that prosocial voice is increased by supervisor tension and trust in employees, while defensive silence is increased by supervisor tension but reduced by unionization of employees and trust in employees. This indicates that, as hypothesized by others, voice and silence are orthogonal and not opposites of the same construct.Research limitations/implicationsThe data are measured at one point in time, and further longitudinal study would be helpful to further understand the phenomena.Practical implicationsThis research highlights the potential for supervisors in stressful situations to selectively hear voice and silence from employees.Social implicationsThis research also has implications for supervisors who work in a unionized environment. Although seemingly counter‐intuitive, there is a value to employee unionization in terms of either reducing the level of actual defensive silence, or at least reducing supervisors’ perceptions of defensive silence.Originality/valueThe paper adds to our knowledge of prosocial voice and defensive silence by testing supervisors’ perceptions of these constructs during difficult times. It provides valuable empirical insights to a literature dominated by conceptual non‐empirical papers. Limited research on silence might reflect how difficult it is to study such an ambiguous and passive construct as silence (often simply viewed as a lack of speech). The paper contributes also to trust literature by identifying its role in increasing supervisor's perceptions of prosocial voice and reducing perceptions of defensive silence.

Speaking Up for the Greater Good: Prosocial Motivation and Voice in Unfavorable Contexts

Considerable research demonstrates that employees are more likely to speak up in favorable contexts, providing little insight into the forces that motivate employees to express voice in the face of unfavorable contexts. According to motivated information processing theory, prosocial motivation may be a catalyst for voice in unfavorable contexts, as prosocially motivated employees are willing to accept the personal costs of speaking up in light of the group benefits. However, trait activation theory suggests the opposite: prosocially motivated employees may be particularly sensitive to context favorability as a relevant situational cue that their ideas will be considered and utilized. We test these competing hypotheses about the moderating role of prosocial motivation across two field studies using different measures to assess employees’ perceptions of context favorability and prosocial motivation, as well as supervisors’ ratings of voice. In Study 1, with employees at a military base, prosocial motivation...

The Determinants of Alternative Forms of Workplace Voice

Workplace voice has been the subject of much research over the past 30 years. Prior work has examined the precursors of a wide variety of voice types including prosocial voice, grievance filing, whistle-blowing, informal complaints, and participation in suggestion systems. However, research on each type of voice has largely been conducted in isolation from work examining alternate types of workplace voice. The goal of this article is to review and integrate the literature on the determinants of workplace voice. The authors’ review of the literature is organized around the major categories of determinants that have been observed in the separate literatures on workplace voice. Based on the review, the authors identify commonalities and differences across alternative forms of voice in the determinants observed. Following this, they explore how the nature and purpose of voice varies, with emphasis on three dimensions of voice: formality, focus, and identifiability. The authors then explore whether this variation is relevant for understanding the pattern of determinants observed across alternative forms of voice. They close by discussing the implications of an integrative perspective of scholars’ understanding of the processes that determine voice and for organizations as they strive to facilitate the productive use of workplace voice.

The Influence of Abusive Supervisors on Followers' Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: The Hidden Costs of Abusive Supervision

In this paper, we identified an expanded array of mediators including interactional justice, organizational-based self-esteem, and the meaning of work, which link abusive supervision to two organizational citizenship behaviours – prosocial silence and prosocial voice. Data from 175 employee–supervisor dyads in the Philippines were collected. Results of structural equation modelling revealed that abusive supervision was significantly negatively associated with followers’ perceptions of interactional justice, which in turn was negatively associated with supervisor-rated prosocial voice behaviours. In addition, abusive supervision was negatively associated with followers’ beliefs that they are engaged in meaningful work and with organizational-based selfesteem, which in turn negatively influenced self-rated prosocial silence. The discussion focuses on the implications of the hidden costs of abusive supervision in organizations.

Conceptualizing Employee Silence and Employee Voice as Multidimensional Constructs*

ABSTRACT Employees often have ideas, information, and opinions for constructive ways to improve work and work organizations. Sometimes these employees exercise voice and express their ideas, information, and opinions; and other times they engage in silence and withhold their ideas, information, and opinions. On the surface, expressing and withholding behaviours might appear to be polar opposites because silence implies not speaking while voice implies speaking up on important issues and problems in organizations. Challenging this simplistic notion, this paper presents a conceptual framework suggesting that employee silence and voice are best conceptualized as separate, multidimensional constructs. Based on employee motives, we differentiate three types of silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence, and ProSocial Silence) and three parallel types of voice (Acquiescent Voice, Defensive Voice, and ProSocial Voice) where withholding important information is not simply the absence of voice. Building on this conceptual framework, we further propose that silence and voice have differential consequences to employees in work organizations. Based on fundamental differences in the overt behavioural cues provided by silence and voice, we present a series of propositions predicting that silence is more ambiguous than voice, observers are more likely to misattribute employee motives for silence than for voice, and misattributions for motives behind silence will lead to more incongruent consequences (both positive and negative) for employees (than for voice). We conclude by discussing implications for future research and for managers.