Why will different types of organisational commitment lead to different forms of employee voice? An explanation from the regulatory focus perspective

Abstract

Because of the seminal work by Hirschman (1970), organisational commitment is expected to play an important role in shaping employee voice behaviour. However, the influence of organisational commitment on employee voice is still unclear, which is found either inconsistent (for affective organisational commitment) or rarely examined (for continuance organisational commitment). This research addresses this important issue from regulatory focus perspective by exploring whether, why, and when different types of organisational commitment (affective commitment vs. continuance commitment) lead to different forms of voice behaviour (constructive voice vs. defensive voice). I propose that employees with high-level affective organisational commitment tend to adopt situational promotion focus, which further promotes their constructive voice, whereas employees with high-level continuance organisational commitment tend to adopt situational prevention focus, which in turn facilitates their defensive voice. I further suggest that the above indirect relationships are contingent on leadership behaviours, in such a way that exploration leadership enhances the indirect relationship between affective organisational commitment and constructive voice, whereas exploitation leadership mitigates the indirect influence of continuance organisational commitment on defensive voice. Study 1 is an experimental study of 70 MBA students, with the purpose of testing whether organisational commitment type (affective organisational commitment vs. continuous organisational commitment) is associated with voice behaviour, and the mediating role of regulatory focus in the above relationships, under objectively defined conditions of organisational commitment. The results of Study 1 reveal that organisational commitment type is indirectly positively linked to constructive voice via situational promotion focus, and indirectly negatively associated with defensive voice via situational prevention focus. Study 2 tests the full moderated mediation model with a field study, applied to 294 frontline employees nested in 62 shops from a large telecommunications company. The results of Study 2 replicate the findings of Study 1, and further demonstrate that exploration leadership strengthens the indirect positive relationship between affective organisational commitment and constructive voice, whereas exploitation leadership weakens the indirect positive relationship between continuance organisational commitment and defensive voice. Finally, this research also explores the theoretical and practical implications of the findings, and presents directions for future research. Show more