Be cautious of your voice when boss is in shame: how manager shame shapes defensive reactions toward employee voice

Purpose: Integrating the psychological threat perspective of voice with cognitive dissonance theory, the current research seeks to uncover how managers’ experience of shame shapes the extent to which they are threatened by and subsequently react defensively to voice(r). Design/methodology/approach: A two (employee voice: voice condition vs no-voice condition) by two (manager shame: shame vs control) between-subjects experiment with 263 participants (i.e. front-line managers from mainland China) was conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings: Employee voice (vs no voice) induced a higher ego threat among managers experiencing a higher than lower level of shame. The heightened ego threat, in turn, negatively affected the perceived warmth of the employee via perceived behavioral appropriateness. In a similar vein, it affected the perceived competence of the employee via perceived behavioral constructiveness. Practical implications: Organizations and managers should be aware of the potential unfavorable effects of managers’ emotional state of shame on voice(r) evaluations and take action to improve managers’ emotional regulation skills. Employees should work on their emotional intelligence, which helps them better “read the wind” before speaking up. Originality/value: The present work advances the understanding of managerial defensive reactions to employee voice by demonstrating that shamed managers are more likely to cognitively denigrate the voice and the voicer as an approach to defend their threatened ego.