The Agency to Implement Voice: How Target Hierarchical Position and Competence Changes the Relationship Between Voice and Individual Performance

Although voice is communication that is intended to benefit the performance of collectives, little is known about the benefits or costs to individual task performance and what mechanisms drive these effects. Our research offers new theory to articulate and illustrate the conditions under which voice has positive versus negative effects on individual task performance by directly acknowledging that employees have many options for where to direct their ideas. We introduce an agency perspective on voice by theorizing that one fundamental reason why employees speak up is to generate the implementation of corrective action for issues affecting themselves and to the extent targets of voice have agency to facilitate action through implementation of voice, voicing employees should be more likely to realize performance benefits from speaking up. In a first field study, we present evidence that two characteristics—the hierarchical position of the voice target (boss versus peer) and the competence of the voice target—alter the relationship between voice and the voicing employee’s task performance. In a second field study, using an event-contingent design, we provide evidence of the unique mechanisms underlying how competent managers (via their resources) and competent peers (via their efficacy to act) affect how upward and sideways voices lead to idea implementation. We discuss the theoretical implications of these ideas and findings by highlighting how voice target characteristics influence not just the incidence of voice but also, its outcomes.