abstract: Constructive voice, the sharing of ideas or concerns that improve organizational functioning, is an important workplace behavior. Recent narrative reviews of constructive voice have highlighted the importance of accounting for different types of voice. Initial efforts to explain the type of constructive voice have focused on voice function, and distinguished constructive voice as promotive or prohibitive in nature. Yet, research findings regarding relationships between promotive and prohibitive voice and antecedents of constructive voice reveal inconsistencies that suggest that our theoretical understanding is incomplete. In this dissertation, I argue that in addition to distinguishing constructive voice as to its function (i.e., promotive voice and prohibitive voice), it is also important to distinguish constructive voice as to its scope (i.e., the number of different issues expressed by employees). By accounting for the function and scope of voice, I develop four specific types of constructive voice (i.e., championing, initiating, alarming, and patrolling) and conduct two studies wherein I establish construct validity and test differences in antecedent and outcome relationships with the specific types of voice. I first focus on scale development: generating items and assessing content validity. In Study 1, I test the factor structure of championing, initiating, alarming, and patrolling, and the nomological network of the measures. My second study is a field study of 251 employees in an insurance company and manufacturing facility. In Study 2 I test the criterion-related validity of the measures and explore the implications of voice scope. The research reported in my dissertation contributes to our understanding of constructive voice, and following from this, facilitates further theoretical and practical advances as to when employees who voice may be heard and when they may be tuned out. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2018

This dissertation leveraged signaling theory to examine feedback loops in employees' constructive voice behavior. Utilizing an event-focused lens, I examined how past experiences with voice behavior can impact an organizational newcomer's willingness to voice. Given contention in the literature on managerial responses to voice, I distinguished between voice implementation and voice appreciation and developed and validated a measure of voice implementation. Using a vignette design, Study 1 provided experimental evidence that a supervisor's voice implementation and appreciation in response to an organizational newcomer's first voice event in a new job impact the likelihood of that employee voicing again. Also using a vignette design, Study 2 provided experimental evidence that organizational newcomers consider their leader-member exchange quality with their current supervisor as well as voice implementation from their previous supervisor when deciding whether to voice for the first time in a new job. In a three-wave field data collection, Study 3 failed to support the hypotheses. However, novel information was discovered about the prevalence and frequency of constructive voice behavior in organizational newcomers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.