I’m Tired of Listening: The Effects of Supervisor Appraisals of Group Voice on Supervisor Emotional Exhaustion and Performance

Abstract

Employee voice, or speaking up with constructive expressions in the workplace, is beneficial to organizations as it is often a catalyst for positive change. Despite its benefits, voice may have mixed implications for supervisors who are frequently the targets of group members’ ideas or concerns. We draw on the transactional theory of stress to examine the positive and negative effects of group promotive and prohibitive voice on supervisor emotional exhaustion and performance. Specifically, we theorize and find that supervisors appraise group promotive voice as fostering their well-being and personal growth (i.e., challenge appraisal) and, conversely, appraise group prohibitive voice as inhibiting their well-being and personal growth (i.e., hindrance appraisal). These appraisals, in turn, influence supervisors’ emotional exhaustion and performance. Furthermore, we investigate a supervisor’s personal sense of power as a boundary condition that influences the effects of group voice on supervisor appraisals of group voice and subsequent emotional exhaustion and performance. We test our model using a multiwave field sample design (Study 1) and an in-person experimental design (Study 2). Across these 2 studies, we find negative indirect effects of group promotive voice on supervisor emotional exhaustion through challenge appraisals of group voice and positive indirect effects of group prohibitive voice on supervisor emotional exhaustion through hindrance appraisals of group voice as well as conditional indirect effects of supervisors’ personal sense of power. Our model offers novel insights into supervisors’ appraisals of group voice and the implications for their emotional exhaustion and performance.