Perceived coworker voice credentials : examining its effects on employee voice and silence

Abstract

Management research has extensively documented the diverse positive outcomes of employee voice, yet the effects of voice on bystanders remain underexplored. Drawing on social information processing theory, I propose that an employee’s perceived coworker voice credentials (PCVC), which is modeled by four main indicators including the employee’s perception of the coworker’s voice level, voice quality, voice impact, and supervisor endorsement, are the key driver of the employee’s responses when he or she witnesses coworker speaking out. Observing a coworker’s strong voice credentials can yield both beneficial and detrimental effects on an employee’s own voice and silence. Illustrating the functional view, PCVC can enhance employees’ voice self-efficacy and instrumentality beliefs, promoting their voice performance in turn. Reflecting the dysfunctional view, PCVC may inadvertently result in employee silence by intensifying their felt diffusion of voice responsibility and their perception of lower social status relative to the voicing coworker. Moreover, as trait affect filters information processing, employee reactions to witnessing coworkers’ voice credentials are contingent on their positive and negative affectivity. To test these hypotheses, data were collected from 536 employee-coworker dyads from mixed job backgrounds over seven weeks and analyzed using an actor-partner interdependence model. The findings are largely supportive, illustrating both advantageous and deleterious consequences of PCVC. Furthermore, the effects of PCVC on employees’ felt diffusion of voice responsibility and perceptions of lower social status were more pronounced for individuals high (vs. low) in negative affectivity. Among the first to unravel how the employee’s and coworker’s responses to their partners’ voice covary, this research conveys a more comprehensive picture of how peer learning of voice unfolds over time at work.