Employee voice means raising constructive feedback or concerns with the intention to improve rather than to criticize. Past research has considered (1) what happens to employees who speak up and (2) what conditions either encourage or dissuade employees from speaking up. New research (Lin et al., 2025) took a different approach to studying voice: they considered how employees react when witnessing their coworkers speaking up.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
In their first study, the researchers gathered data from 221 employees participating in daily surveys. They found that when people witnessed coworkers speaking up, it led to feelings of inspiration and a higher likelihood that the witnesses would in turn speak up in the future.
However, witnesses would occasionally feel distress and engage in deviant behavior, especially against the coworkers who spoke out. This was influenced by the employee’s zero-sum beliefs – the idea that if one person wins, the other loses. In this case, when employees use their voices and benefit from it, witnesses could feel as though they are losing out on something. In turn, they may react negatively.
Both findings were supported in a second experimental study using 142 employees reading different vignettes (a coworker speaking up or not) and relating how they would respond.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Giving employees the freedom and authority to use their voice at work has been shown to have positive effects on the people speaking up. This research extends these findings to witnesses as well. To put this research into action, organizations should do the following:
- Cultivate feelings of psychological safety at work. This will encourage employees to use their voices. Starting with just one employee can have cascading effects.
- Actively combat zero-sum beliefs by demonstrating that one employee’s gain is not another’s loss.
- Promote cooperation and team unity in the workplace. This may help deter the “dark side” of employee voice.
Lin, S. H., Fatimah, S., Poulton, E. C., Ho, C. M., Ferris, D. L., & Johnson, R. E. (2025). Every voice has its bright and dark sides: Understanding observers’ reactions to coworkers’ voice behaviors. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 98, e12546.
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