The Curvilinear Relationship between Employee Voice and Managers’ Performance Evaluations: The Moderating Role of Voice Consensus

Abstract

In the rapidly changing business environment, employee voice can be a key driver of organizations’ sustainable development. However, how can employees ensure that they receive a positive response from their managers? To what extent do the voice patterns within the team influence managers’ reactions to one employee’s voice behaviors? To address these questions, we draw on the antecedent–benefit–cost framework (ABC framework) and knowledge management literature to investigate the inverted U-shaped relationship between employee voice and managers’ performance evaluations and the role of voice consensus (i.e., the extent to which the frequency of an employee’s voice is dissimilar to that of his/her coworkers) in shaping this relationship. The results of a field study of 173 employees in 37 groups show that employees who engage in moderate levels of voice are rated as better performers than those who rarely voice or voice very frequently, especially when the frequency of employees’ voice deviates from the voice frequency of their coworkers (i.e., low consensus). These findings highlight that it is not only important to explore the frequency of voice when studying managerial responses to employee voice but to also examine other dimensions of the voice behavior (such as voice consensus).