From Perceived Personal Reputation to Voice Behaviors: Speaking Up Because You Can vs. Have to?

This study seeks to understand how employees’ perception of their personal reputation influences voice behaviors. Drawing upon research on self-regulation, we contend that personal reputation has a dual nature. Individuals who perceive they hold a favorable reputation may feel they (a) can influence their work environment (i.e., sense of power) and (b) have to bring about favorable work outcomes (i.e., outcome responsibility). We further contend that these two psychological states uniquely mediate the relations between personal reputation and constructive, supportive, destructive, and defensive voice behaviors. We conducted two studies to examine these predictions. Study 1 is an experimental scenario study which examines the relations between perceived personal reputation and sense of power and outcome responsibility, respectively. Results show that perceived personal reputation is significantly and positively related to both sense of power and outcome responsibility. Study 2 is a three-wave field study, which explores the indirect relations between perceived personal reputation and constructive, supportive, destructive, and defensive voice behaviors. Results confirm Study 1 findings. They also show that sense of power and outcome responsibility separately mediate the relations between perceived personal reputation and specific forms of voice behaviors. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.