Voice Quality and Ostracism

Abstract

To move beyond the current emphasis on voice level or quantity in voice research, it is important to consider the effects of making suggestions that others view as poor quality. Guided by sociometer theory, we propose that voice quality affects workplace ostracism: The coworker may see the employee who makes bad suggestions as incompetent, which results in the employee being ostracized. The employee’s ostracism experience matters because it may not only result in the employee’s self-perception of poor voice quality but may also lead the employee to rate the coworker’s suggestions more harshly. In a field study over 6 weeks (294 employee-coworker dyads) and two vignette experiments (401 subjects), we found support for this sociometer view of voice quality. Thus, this study makes an important contribution to voice research by highlighting the quality dimension of voice. Employees who hope to effect change through their voice should monitor whether the quality of their suggestions will be judged favorably or unfavorably by their coworkers to avoid being ostracized.

More efforts after feeling rejected: the effects of poor voice quality on employee's motivation to make high-quality voice

“…This integrated model makes at least two contributions to the voice literature. First, this study responds to increasing calls for research on voice quality (Ng et al. , 2020; Whiting et al.…”

“…Recently, research on voice quality has received increasing interest among scholars (Burris, 2012; Whiting et al. , 2012; Ng et al. , 2020).…”

“…Confronted with a variety of employees' voices, the usefulness or persuasiveness of the voice is more important for supervisors than the presence or frequency of the voice (Crant and Wang, 2011). Nevertheless, good ideas are always hard to find while bad suggestions seem to occur quite frequently (Ng et al. , 2020).…”

You Speak, I Speak: The Social‐Cognitive Mechanisms of Voice Contagion

“…Voice contagion is also relevant to research on the consequences of voice. Ng et al (in press) examined voice consequences from a ‘sociometer’ view, and suggest that employees monitor whether their voice will be accepted or rejected by co‐workers, as the latter hinders their self‐evaluations. The contagion and ‘sociometer’ approaches are complementary.…”

A time to consider, a time to deliver: The independent and interactive effects of regulatory mode on innovative work behavior

“…To this latter point, Satterstrom et al (2020) found that most ideas tend to be ignored, and that team members serve an invaluable role in keeping ideas “alive” into later implementation. Ng et al (2020) similarly theorized that although employees are often encouraged to generate and share ideas, most are either of poor quality or are so innovative that they are seen as disruptive and ultimately impractical (Anderson et al, 2014; Škerlavaj et al, 2014).…”