When are they more likely to listen? An investigation on managerial response to voice

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigate the factors underlying managerial response to voice with three papers. Chapter One reviews the literature on managerial response to voice and provides a general introduction of my three papers. Chapter Two presents a model investigating how managerial ego depletion influences manager’s decision of voice endorsement, and how such relationship is moderated by employee expertise. A field study and an experimental study were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Chapter Three, I examine the controversial effect of leader-follower gender-match on managerial response to voice and highlight the moderating role of manager’s social comparison orientation. Two experiments with manager samples provide consistent supports for the hypotheses. In Chapter Four, I examine when managers reward or punish employee voice by studying the contingencies of employees’ helping and ingratiatory behavior, and demonstrate how managerial attribution of voice explains such effects. I conducted a series of studies to develop the scale of managerial attribution of voice, and a longitudinal, leader-follower dyadic field study to test the hypotheses. Chapter 5 provides a brief conclusion of the three papers.