Well-Being Implications of Unaccepted Voice for Voicers: Negative Affect and Insomnia as Outcomes

Employees express voice in order to improve the status quo of their work units and organizations. However, sometimes employee voice attempts are not accepted by managers or violate group norms with regards to voice expression. When voice is unaccepted, it may not only negatively impact the effectiveness of their work units and organization, but also may take a toll on voicer well-being. Drawing from the appraisal theory of discrete emotions (Roseman, 1984, 1991, 1996), we examine the well-being implications of unaccepted voice for voicers. In a 10-day within-person study of 113 full-time employees, we found that employees experienced higher levels of fear and, subsequently, were more likely to suffer from insomnia at night, when their voice was rejected by their supervisors. In addition, we found that these effects of supervisory voice rejection on fear and insomnia were stronger for employees who had lower levels of affective commitment to their organization. Also, we found that employees were more likely to feel frustrated when their voice violated group or organizational norms, and this effect was stronger for employees who were higher in affective commitment.