Republic of korea naval academy, Korea, Republic of
Previous research has suggested that voice rejection, defined as explicitly disapproving employee suggestions, reduces subsequent voice. However, recent evidence indicates that voice rejection may not always dampen, and could instead inspire employees' ongoing engagement. Drawing on social information processing theory, we explore these contradictory findings, hypothesizing the dual mediating roles of employees’ voice safety and self-perception of poor voice quality, along with the moderating role of supervisors’ explanations in the relationship between supervisor-employee voice interaction dynamic. Using a two-wave survey, we collected data from 189 supervisor-employee dyads to test these hypotheses. Our results revealed that voice rejection can lead to an affectively negative path, specifically a diminishing voice safety that decreases subsequent voice. However, we also found a cognitively positive path where voice rejection leads employees to become aware of their poor voice quality, enhancing their subsequent voice constructiveness. Moreover, sensitive explanations mitigate the negative impact of voice rejection on voice safety, while specific explanations facilitate the positive impact on self-perception of poor voice quality, identifying the relative importance of each type of explanation. This research challenges the consensus that voice rejection generally has a negative impact on subsequent voice and contributes to understanding the boundary conditions of voice rejection.
