Say what you need to say: Consequences of voice directness, voice politeness, and perceived expertise on managerial endorsement

Research Interest
When employees express challenge-oriented suggestions to their manager, should they be direct and “say what they need to say” in order to gain a manager’s endorsement? On the one hand, existing research suggests that expressing voice in a direct manner is associated with lower levels of idea endorsement, because managers are in a hierarchically higher position and may feel threatened when they are challenged by their subordinates. On the other hand, research on communication suggests that being direct is associated with higher levels of idea endorsement, because managers would better understand a raised issue, spend more time thinking about and discussing the issue, and become more likely to address and adopt changes associated with the issue. To resolve these competing perspectives, I draw from communication theory and idiosyncrasy credit theory to explain when voice directness is more or less likely to be associated with managerial endorsement. Across three studies (two field and one experimental), I found evidence that voice directness is positively associated with idea endorsement. Moreover, results showed that even when employees are direct and impolite, managers are still more likely to endorse an idea when the employees are perceived to be credible by the manager.