Speaking Up About the Forest to Someone Who Only Thinks About the Trees: The Effect of Construal Level Agreement on Supervisor Endorsement of Employee Voice

Employee voice is a vital part of improving the status quo within organizations. Many changes, whether regarding business culture, organizational structure, or workplace procedures, can only come about if employees speak up. For improvements to arise from employee voice, supervisors generally need to accept and implement employees’ input. The purpose of this research is to determine why employees’ feedback is often poorly received by supervisors, preventing the employee from bringing about positive organizational change. I use construal level theory in this paper to highlight one area that can positively influence supervisors’ reception of employee voice. Construal level theory describes the psychological distance between individuals and their work. In other words, this theory reflects the level of abstractness or concreteness that people have when thinking about the work they perform. I collected the data for this paper through a survey administered to 128 people in management roles. I hypothesized that when a supervisor and an employee’s construal levels are in agreement, whether it be high level or low level, that the supervisor is more likely to endorse instances of employee voice. Both parties’ perceived construal levels were compared to see whether agreement in employee-supervisor construal level was associated with supervisors endorsing their employees’ input. I found that my hypothesis was not supported and agreement in construal levels does not correlate to higher rates of supervisor endorsement of employee voice. Incidentally, I found that employees speaking up at a higher construal level (abstract) is the best predictor of supervisor endorsement. Overall, my research indicates construal level theory is an important tool to understanding supervisors’ receptivity to employee voice and could be further applied to understand workplace communication and employee-supervisor relationships