It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it: How callings influence constructive voice delivery
Human Relations · 2021 · Volume 74 · Issue 12
Abstract
How employees communicate their ideas at work shapes how their ideas are received. When employees constructively communicate their ideas, the value of those ideas can be more readily recognized. Conversely, ideas that are not communicated constructively may be overlooked, ignored, or rejected, regardless of their potential value to an organization. This research contributes to the employee voice literature by introducing the concept of constructive voice delivery and examining its relationship with callings. In this endeavor, two field studies explored the influence of callings on constructive voice delivery. The first study examined these relationships from the employee perspective, identified organizational attachment as the mechanism driving the relationship, and highlighted the role psychological safety plays in strengthening the relationship. The second study explored the relationship between callings and constructive voice delivery from managers’ perspectives, revealing a negative relationship between callings and managerial ratings of constructive voice delivery and emphasized psychological safety’s role in strengthening this negative relationship. Furthermore, constructive voice delivery suppressed the positive effect callings have on employee performance. Taken together, the results of both studies demonstrate that constructive voice delivery is an important aspect of speaking up at work.
Keywords
callings, communicator style, delivery, speaking up, voice
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