The moderating role of message content in the formation of employee voice

Abstract

Research on employee voice has highlighted the different nature of promotive and prohibitive voice. However, only few studies have explicitly analysed the implications of this distinction for showing voice. Therefore, to enhance our knowledge regarding the formation of employee voice, our article focuses on the moderating role of the message content. In a scenario-based study, we show that employees’ decision to speak up might differ depending on what the message is about. In addition, we found evidence that some effects might be the same for both promotive and prohibitive voice, indicating that the distinction between both types of message content might be more complex than research currently assumes. The findings underline the need for more comparative research on the different natures of promotive and prohibitive voice.