Direct or Polite? Antecedents and Consequences of How Employees Express Voice.

Voice;Economics;Business;Business Administration

Lam, Chak FuBagozzi, Richard P. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Voice;    Economics;    Business;    Business Administration;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/100002/chakfu_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Prior research on voice has focused predominantly on voicers’ perception of threats to the self, paying significantly less attention to voicers’ perception of threats to the presumed voice targets, such as to their manager. In this dissertation, I posit that voicers’ perception of threat to their manager in a voice episode influences the methods of voice. In particular, I draw from politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987) to propose that voicers actively mitigate anticipated threats to their manager in a voice episode by varying the degree of directness (being explicit about desire for change) and politeness (being mannerly, courteous, and respectful). I then explain how interpersonal characteristics between voicers and their manager (in the form of psychological power and leader–member exchange) alter the voicers’ perception of how their manager interprets and reacts to voice. Results from a diary study and a situated experiment provide convergent evidence that employees are less direct and more polite when they raise an issue that is perceived as potentially threatening to their manager. Moreover, these effects are mitigated when the quality of the leader–member exchange relationship is stronger. Finally, results linking voice directness and voice politeness with managerial responses to voice show that voice directness is more strongly associated with idea endorsement, whereas voice politeness is more strongly associated with subordinate liking. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.