Research On The Impact Of Enterprise Digital Voice Platform Characteristics On Employee Voice Behavior And Its Implementation

Organizational environment becomes increasingly complex,which requires managers to recognize any potential chance for organizational development and try to detect and solve organizational problems.However,it is impossible for managers to acknowledge all the information pertaining to the organization operation and development.Thus,employee voice behavior is important for managers to make effective organizational development strategies.Employee voice behavior also plays important roles in improving organizational operation and innovation.Given the importance of voice and the prevalence of information and communication technology,many enterprises have adopt ed the digital voice platform,which has evolved into a new form of employee voice.Consequently,scholars are concentrating on employee voice behavior in the digital context.Existing research neglects the antecedents of voice in the digital context.Although a limited amount of research shows how the digital voice platform influences employee voice behavior from the perspective of technology characteristics,conclusions are inconsistent.Future research needs to reconcile the conflicting results.Besides,institutions and technology are intertwined.It is not systematic to merely focus on the technology characteristic s.The institution characteristics that can activate the positive role of platforms should be considered.Thus,it is necessary to explore th e relationship between the digital voice platform characteristics and employee voice behavior from a systematic perspective.Furthermore,employee voice behavior is risky,thus it is critical for employees to generate the motivation for voice.However,exi sting research overlooks the importance of motivations in the process by which the digital voice platform characteristics drive employee voice behavior.Therefore,this study explores how and when digital voice platform’s technology characteristic(voice visibility)and institution characteristic(due-process voice appraisal system)influence employee voice behavior.Besides,given the importance of implementing digital voice and limited literature reveals how employees implement voice on the digital voice platform,this study will further explore how employees implement voice on the digital voice platform autonomously.First,on the basis of triadic reciprocal determinism theory and conservation of resources theory,this study combines the proactive motiva tion model and explores the relationship between voice visibility and employee voice behavior,particularly the mediating roles of voice efficacy and positive mood and the moderating role of employees’ ability for thinking out solutions to voice.Second,based on triadic reciprocal determinism theory and the proactive motivation model,this study focuses on the mediating role of voice efficacy,positive mood,and promotion focus,revealing the mechanism of the relationship between due-process voice appraisal system and employee voice behavior.Finally,based on triadic reciprocal determinism theory and self-determination theory,this study further investigates the process of how voice on the digital voice platform is implemented by employees autonomously.This study combines the survey,quasi-experiment,and longitudinal case study.In the survey research,this study collected 257 valid questionnaires from enterprises that use the digital voice platform in Jilin,Heilongjiang,and Beijing.In the quasi-experiment research,this study collected 265 valid questionnaires from a Jilin enterprise that implemented the due-process voice appraisal system.This study used regression analysis to analyze data.In the longitudinal case study,CBM was chosen as the case and the mechanism of how voice on the digital voice platform is implemented autonomously by employees was uncovered.In the study of the effects of voice visibility on employee voice behavior,the results show that:(1)there is not a significant relationshi p between voice visibility and employee voice behavior,but there is a double-edge effect.Specifically,voice efficacy mediates the relationship between voice visibility and employee voice behavior and positive mood mediates the relationship between voice visibility and employee voice behavior.(2)employees’ ability for thinking out solutions to voice moderates the relationship between voice visibility and voice behavior via voice efficacy.However,the ability for thinking out solutions to voice can not play a moderating role between voice visibility and positive mood and the moderated mediation is not supported.In the study of the effects of due-process voice appraisal system on employee voice behavior,the results show that:(1)due-process voice appraisal system positively and significantly impacts employee voice behavior.(2)voice efficacy,positive mood,and promotion focus mediate the relationship between due-process voice appraisal system and employee voice behavior respectively.(3)authoritarian leadership attenuates the positive role of due-process voice appraisal system in employee voice behavior.Specifically,authoritarian leadership moderates the relationship between due-process voice appraisal system and voice efficacy and positive mood,an d the relationship between due-process voice appraisal system and employee voice behavior via voice efficacy and positive mood.However,authoritarian leadership can not play the moderating role between due-process voice appraisal system and promotion focus and the moderated mediation is not supported.In the study of analyzing how employees autonomously implement voice on the digital voice platform,the results show that(1)there are three stages for motivating employees to engage in voice implementation autonomously,including the bud bursting stage of voice implementation,the cultivation stage of implementing voice autonomously,and the stage of implementing voice autonomously.Besides,institutional empowerment is a critical component in driving employees to engage in voice implementation.(2)enterprises can use different empowerment tactics to realize voice implemented by collectives;employees play a leading role in the implementation process.(3)motivating employees to implement voice autonomously is a motivation internalized process.Motivations undergo a shift from controlled motivation to autonomous motivation,driving employees to implement voice from passive to autonomy.The study discusses the results and provides practical implications for regulating the effect of digital voice platform characteristics on employee voice behavior and its subsequent implementation.To be specific,this study proposed the suggestions such as how to improve the effectiveness of the digital voice platform,how to improve employee proactive motivation for voice,and how to encourage employees to implement voice autonomously in the digital context.This study intends to give enterprises theoretical and practical guidance to improve the effectiveness of the digital voice platform.