I Speak Up to My Tech-Savvy Leader: Technological Savviness and Voice

Employees look for situational cues before engaging in voice behaviors to assess costs and benefits of speaking up, yet this search predominantly pertains to leader behaviors that are directly oriented toward employees. In this paper, we argue that leaders’ technological savviness, defined as having the knowledge of and predisposition to adopting new technologies, is a peripheral yet critical non-direct cue that influences employee voice. Drawing on social cognition and impression formation perspectives, we posit that employees perceive technologically savvy leaders as more open to new ideas and this, in turn, leads to voice behaviors. Through three experiments (Studies 1 – 3) and one field study (Study 4), we tested and found support for our hypotheses: leaders’ display of technological savviness is positively related to voice (Studies 1 – 4); perceptions of leader openness drives this effect (Studies 2 – 4); typicality of new technology use in a given context moderates this effect such that the indirect effect of leaders’ technological savviness on voice through perceived leader openness is stronger when typicality of new technology use is high (Studies 3 – 4). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings, and directions for future research on employee voice, leadership, and the psychology of technology.

Zoom link: https://eur-nl.zoom.us/j/93542713303?pwd=WTdrRVJJM09wcDlXMmJtOWYxM3Fwdz09&from=addon

Meeting ID: 935 4271 3303