Doing right versus getting ahead: the effects of duty and achievement orientations on employees' voice

Tangirala, S, Kamdar, D, Venkataramani, V and Parke, M (2013) Doing right versus getting ahead: the effects of duty and achievement orientations on employees' voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98 (6). pp. 1040-1050. ISSN 0021-9010

Abstract

Using role theory as the overarching framework, we propose that employees’ voice has contrasting relationships with the traits of duty orientation, or employees’ dispositional sense of moral and ethical obligation at the workplace, and achievement orientation, or the extent of their ingrained personal ambition to get ahead professionally. Using data from 262 employees and their managers, we demonstrate that duty and achievement orientations are, respectively, positively and negatively related to voice through their impact on voice role conceptualization or the extent to which employees consider voice as part of their personal responsibility at work. Further, we delineate how employees’ beliefs about their efficacy to engage in voice and judgments about psychological safety in the organization can moderate these relationships. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.