Is it Worth the Regret? Deciding to Engage in Employee Voice

The current study integrated emotion, specifically anticipated regret, into the decision process for employee voice. As a cognitively mediated emotion, anticipated regret is unique from previously studied voice factors (i.e., motivators and inhibitors) that influence risk judgments and voice decisions. Two studies utilizing an experimental moderated mediation design was used to examine the indirect influence of risk on voice intent through both anticipated voice and silence regret. In both studies, high-risk voice situations led to higher anticipated voice regret, lower anticipated silence regret, and decreased intent to voice compared with low-risk situations. Anticipated regret for engaging in voice was found to mediate the relationship between risk and voice intent in both studies, and also exhibited a significantly stronger indirect effect. This indicates that employees differentially weigh the two types of anticipated regret, especially for situations with greater risk. These findings were consistent across two voice scenarios and two samples, illustrating its robustness to different workplace contexts. Importantly, our study indicates that judgments of risk influence an employee’s anticipated emotions, leading to regret-averse behavior. In contrast to previous research, this study demonstrated that emotion-based factors do not always lead to rash or irrational decision-making. Instead, anticipated regret was integrated into the traditional, utility-based voice calculation and allowed individuals to augment their voice decisions by anticipating and acting upon their desired emotional outcomes. By jointly considering traditional voice factors and anticipated emotions, we provide a novel pathway for organizations to understand employee voice and silence.