The negative consequences of team voice: an interaction of frequency and centralization

Purpose: While it is generally believed that team voice helps to improve collective outcomes, scant consideration has been given to its potential drawbacks. Drawing upon a team information processing perspective, the current study aims to delve into how team voice frequency and team voice centralization interact to influence team decision-making effectiveness and subsequent team performance. 

Design/methodology/approach: A two-wave field study involving 72 sales teams (i.e. 72 supervisors matched with 288 subordinates) was conducted to test the interaction effect of frequency and centralization of team voice on team decision-making effectiveness and subsequent team performance. 

Findings: We found that when the centralization of team voice was low, that is, when the voice was evenly distributed within the team, team voice frequency was negatively related to team performance via hindering team decision-making effectiveness. 

Practical implications: The findings reveal that when team managers encourage followers to speak up more, they should identify members who are competent and experienced in contributing valuable inputs and learn to develop the optimal configuration of the team voice. 

Originality/value: Focusing on the interactive effect of average voice amount and voice distribution in work teams, our research contributes to the voice literature by answering when and how team voice may hinder important team outcomes.