Variations in Voice Pertaining to Dissatisfaction/Satisfaction with Subordinates

Abstract

A review of organizational literature pertaining to performance appraisal, voice, and superior-subordinate communications provides little understanding of the variations of voice superiors may associate with subordinates' satisfactory/dissatisfactory performance. Interviews and questionnaires were administered to 146 superiors who were each asked to assess a subordinate whose performance she or he was dissatisfied/satisfied with or uncertain about. These three types of subordinates were found to be identifiable from reasons given by superiors. A discriminant function of reasons emphasized the categories of job quality, dependability, and interpersonal skills. It is not only the quality of one's work and one's dependability that influence assessments of job performance by superiors but also how one communicates. The study's hypothesized findings were that subordinates seen as possessing constructive rather than apathetic or complainer disagreement styles were higher in argumentativeness and lower in verbal aggressiveness, and they tended to have superiors who were satisfied with the subordinate's job performance. Support was observed for the counterintuitive prediction that complainers would be low in argumentativeness.