When voice takes destructive rather than constructive forms in manager-employee dyads: A power-dependence perspective.

Abstract

We offer a relational perspective on how power shapes voice in the employee-manager dyad. We argue that to properly understand the impact of employees' power on voice, it must be analyzed alongside the power held by their managers. We propose that although voice increases when employees hold high power, its form-whether constructive or destructive-depends on their managers' power. We posit that employees' dependence on managers for rewards and sponsorship reflects the power that managers hold over employees, while managers' reliance on employees for expertise and knowledge signifies the power that employees hold over managers. We argue that when employees' power increases in the context of high managerial power, they are more likely to develop interdependent and contextualized self-evaluations, such as organization-based self-esteem. These self-evaluations promote a constructive voice that involves challenging the status quo in a functional and actionable manner. Conversely, when employees' power increases in the context of low managerial power, they may develop independent and inflated self-evaluations, such as ego inflation. This can lead to destructive voice that involves merely expressing negativity as a way of questioning the status quo. We find support for our theory through a complementary set of studies, including a preregistered experimental study and a two-wave multisource field study. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).