Abstract
Nowadays, organizations are paying more attention to voice behavior, which can help managers make high-quality decisions, promote the healthy growth and positive change of the organization, but the positive effects can only be exerted when the voices are endorsed. Although a large number of studies have explored the influencing factors of the recommendations, why managers adopt different suggestions and how employees can make suggestions to enable managers to better adopt which is not yet clear. It is particularly important to discuss the mechanism of voice from the perspective of face and humor in the perspective of Chinese cultural context. Based on the persuasion theory and the face theory, this study aimed to probe into the factors and mechanisms of managers' voice endorsement. Voice behavior can be regarded as a process of upward persuasion, perceived face threats by leaders and the ways of expression must be considered. Therefore, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to verify the mediating role of perceived face threat and the moderating role of humor.
This paper conducted two studies to verify the hypothesis. Study 1 was conducted through the situational experiment after the improvement of humor scale with 357 participants einvestigated, the experimental situation between the 2 voice content (promotive vs. prohibitive) × 3 humor types (positive vs. negative vs. control group) was used. Preliminary explored the mediating role of perceiving face threats and the moderating role of humor types. In the second experiment, 505 employees in management positions were investigated through online questionnaire, SPSS 25.0 and the bootstrap technique were used to test our hypothese.
The results of study 1 found that: the perceived face threat of leaders partially mediates the relationship between the types of voice (promotive/ prohibitive) and voice endorsement; the type of humor moderates the relationship between the types of voice (promotive/prohibitive) and the perceived face threat of leaders; compared with the negative and non-humorous expressions, positive humor suggestions can reduce the degree of perceived face threat of leaders and promote the endorsement of voice. The results of study 2 found that: compared with the prohibitive voice, leaders’ endorsement of the promotive voice is higher; the perceived face threat of leaders has a partial mediating effect; besides, the level of positive humor moderates the relationship between the types of voice (promotive/prohibitive) and the perceived face threat of leaders, the higher level of positive humor is, the lower level of face threat perceived, which in return promotes voice endorsement.
This study contributes to the voice literature in multiple ways. First, our study enriches the theoretical contributions by clarifying the path from voice behavior to voice endorsement. Second, this study exployed the mechanism of voice behavior as well as voice endorsement. It broadens the research area on voice behavior from the perspective of "face" , which is a traditional element of Chinese culture.Third, this study also sheds light on the voice endorsement by identitying the moderating role of positive humor, which provides practical reference for both employees and organizations to manage voice behavior effectively. Therefore, this study also provides useful guidance for management practice.
Key words
voice endorsement /
promotive voice /
prohibitive voice /
perceived threat of face /
humor
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The Influence of The Types of Voices on The Voice Endorsement: The Role of Face and Humor[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(1): 145-153
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