著者

松永 正樹

出版者

日本コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

ヒューマン・コミュニケーション研究 (ISSN:09137041)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.41, pp.39-68, 2013-03-31 (Released:2017-11-30)

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Despite the vast literature on employee "voice" -a set of organizational behaviors to speak up with intentions to improve one's work processes-the communicative features and underlying structure of "voice" behaviors have yet to be explored. Previous studies focus on whether organizational members speak up, leaving the issue of how they communicate "voice" unattended. Additionally, extant research overly highlights rational decision-making; consequently, theorizing about relationally-centered decision-making processes regarding "voice" is lacking. To address those limitations, the current research analyzed the data collected from 539 full-timers in Japan. The first part of the study utilizing the latent profile analyses identified five distinct "voice" strategies. Those analyses revealed that direct communication is rather atypical, and many utilize indirect strategies. In the second part, the underlying structure of "voice" was examined using multi-level structural equation modeling. The results indicated that: (a) employees' attitudes and subjective norms as well as leader-member exchange (LMX), but not communication efficacy, are associated with "voice" intentions; (b) LMX's effects are partially mediated via psychological factors; and (c) group-level LMX differentiation demonstrated explanatory power above and beyond the individual-level predictors. These results are discussed with reference to the relevant literature along with the current research's limitations and future directions.