How and When Peers' Positive Mood Influences Employees' Voice

Employees often assess whether the social context is favorable for them to speak out, yet little research has investigated how the target's mood might influence the actor's voice behavior. From an affect-associal-information perspective, we explored such potential effects of the target's mood on the actor's promotive voice in 2 empirical studies. In a scenario-based study with 142 MBA students (Study 1), the target's positive mood was positively associated with the actor's intentions to engage in promotive voice toward that target, mediated by the actor's perceived psychological safety. This mediated relationship was stronger when (a) the quality of the relationship between the actor and the target was poor or (b) the actor had a lower social status than the target. We replicated these results in Study 2, a correlational field study with 572 dyads nested within 142 members of 30 teams, where the actor's promotive voice behaviors (rather than intentions) were measured.