From idea endorsement to idea implementation: A multilevel social network approach toward managerial voice implementation

Abstract

Endorsing employee voice is one thing; implementation of endorsed ideas is another. Although organizational research has paid increasing attention to examining managers’ psychological endorsement of employee voice, the factors that can affect managers’ actual implementation of endorsed employee voice remain unclear. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we develop a conceptual model of managerial voice implementation and conceptualize it as a manager’s planned behavior that is affected by the manager’s motivation, felt obligation, and perceived control in relation to implementation. We further apply social network approaches to explain how social network characteristics across multiple levels in the team (i.e. dyadic ties, network centrality, and network closure) can facilitate the manager’s psychological impetus for voice implementation – transforming endorsed voice into managerial practices in the workplace. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this manager-centric and social network-based framework of managerial voice implementation.