The Transformation Of Voice Behavior And Silence Behavior:a Dual-Process Examination

Voice behaviors with challenging,constructive and proactive characteristics are an important driving force to enhance organizational effectiveness and promote personal development.However,employees are not always engaged in voice behavior,and even take silence behavior in response to existing or potential problems in the organization.Therefore,how to guide and strengthen the voice behavior,as well as control and weaken the silence behavior are issues that organizations need to solve urgently.The existing research shows that voice and silence are two independent behaviors,but the study of the relationship between the two mainly stays at the level of theoretical conception,and it is still necessary to examine how and when the voice behavior affects silence behavior from an empirical perspective.Based on the conservation of resources theory,and literature of the volatility and consistency of moral behavior,this research explores the internal influence mechanism and boundary conditions of employees’ voice behavior on silence behavior.Study 1 was designed as a single-factor experiment,which is divided into experiment 1a and experiment 1b.Experiment 1a(N=94)adopted the paradigm of situational experiment to investigate how voice effect ego-depletion and the mediating effect of ego-depletion.Experiment 1b(N=87)adopted the paradigm of recall experiment to explore the mediating effect of ego-depletion and the moderating effect of self-control.The results indicated that voice behavior had a positive predictive effect on ego-depletion,and voice behavior had an indirect positive effect on silence behavior through ego-depletion.Moreover,self-control moderated the relationship between voice behavior and ego-depletion,namely compared with individuals with low self-control levels,employees with high self-control perceived lower degree of ego-depletion caused by voice behavior.Study 2 also was designed as a single-factor experiment,which is divided into experiment 2a and experiment 2b.Experiment 2a(N=79)adopted the paradigm of situational experiment to test the relationship of voice and moral credits,and expolre the mechanism of how voice affect silence through moral credits.Moreover,Experiment 2b(N=107)adopted the paradigm of recall experiment to examine the mediating effect of moral credits and the moderating effect of moral identity.The results showed that voice behavior had a positive predictive effect on moral credits and it had an indirect negative influence on silence through moral credits,as well as moral identity moderated the relationship between voice behavior and moral credits.Specifically,compared with individuals with low moral identity levels,employees with high moral identity perceived higher degree of moral credits brought by voice behavior.Finally,this study analyzes and discusses the experimental results and significance,and puts forward the limitations and prospects of the research.