Why some employee voice is heard while other voices are ignored

When an employee offers a suggestion for improvement but is ignored by their supervisor, while another colleague similarly raises an idea and receives praise, this seemingly unfair discrepancy is not random—it follows a predictable psychological mechanism. Yue Zhu, a PhD student at International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, has published a study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior showing that how supervisors respond to employee voice depends critically on whose interests they perceive the employee to be speaking for.

The study distinguishes between three common types of voice. Prosocial voice aims to improve conditions for others or the organisation. Pro-self-voice primarily serves personal interests or needs. Combined voice integrates both others' and one's own interests in a single expression. Although all three types are common in workplaces, management practices often favour "selfless" voice, overlooking employees' legitimate personal concerns.

Through interviews, experiments, and a field survey with supervisor-subordinate dyads, the study reveals three dimensions along which supervisors evaluate employee voice: warmth (whether the employee appears kind), competence (whether they appear capable), and authenticity (whether they appear sincere). The results show that prosocial voice tends to signal both warmth and competence, eliciting positive reactions. Pro-self-voice tends to score lower on these dimensions. Combined voice, however, stands out on the dimension of authenticity—when employees openly acknowledge that their personal considerations coexist with organisational interests, supervisors are more likely to perceive them as genuine and trustworthy. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that the suggestion is adopted and that the employee receives higher performance evaluations.

Yue Zhu notes: "Managers should not simply categorise employee voice as 'selfless good' and 'selfish bad'. Different types of voice may all carry value. "

For organisations, this means helping leaders develop a more nuanced understanding of voice and establishing objective evaluation systems, rather than relying on intuitive judgments of "whether it serves the wider good". For employees, purely self-centred expressions are unlikely to be well received, but integrating personal concerns with team benefits while demonstrating goodwill and competence can significantly improve the chances that their voice is heard.

When voice is no longer reduced to a binary label of "selfless versus selfish", employees are more likely to  become a constructive force within the organisation rather than a source of conflict.

Yue Zhu is a second-year PhD student in the Strategic Management and Organisation (SMO) department at IBSS. Her PhD project focuses on how teams react to (mis)matched leader communication, particularly through the lens of construal level theory. Her broader research interests include leadership, employee voice, and proactive behaviour. She has also contributed to faculty-led projects on diverse topics in the organisational behaviour field at IBSS.

The Journal of Organizational Behavior publishes empirical reports and theoretical reviews of research in the field of organizational behavior at individual, group and organizational levels. The journal is a valuable resource for all those interested in occupational psychology, behavior management, and psycho/social/legal management aspects of working life.