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Stew in silence or boil up gradually? A process model of employees’ remedial voice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2023

Xiaotao Zheng
Affiliation:
Department of Business, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Bingqing Wu*
Affiliation:
Department of Business, University of Wisconsin, Parkside, Kenosha, WI, USA
Haesang Park
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, USA
MingChuan Yu
Affiliation:
Department of Business, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Xiaoling Yang
Affiliation:
Postgraduate College English Division, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
*
Corresponding author: Bingqing Wu; Email: wub@uwp.edu

Abstract

Prior studies have treated employees’ remedial voice as a single-stage phenomenon. However, it is problematic because, in reality, employees often respond to mistreatment in a sequence. This paper aims to add new insights by empirically testing a three-stage process model to explain employees’ remedial voice. Also, this study intends to test important factors in the employees’ remedial voice decision-making process. Based on data obtained by surveying 382 Chinese employees, we found that mistreatment severity, mistreatment source, and employees’ external job opportunities are related to employees’ remedial voice. Our data provides support for a three-stage-process model for remedial voice. We contribute to the gaps in the existing research which largely views employees’ remedial voice as a single ‘snapshot.’ The study also deepens understanding of what factors affect employees’ remedial voice.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management

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