Voice behavior and creative performance moderated by stressors

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the moderating role of work-related stressors on the relationship between voice behavior and the voicer’s creative performance. Design/methodology/approach The sample comprised 781 full-time employees from 16 companies covering six industries in the central region of China. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results showed that voice behavior had significant positive effect on creative performance. The positive relationship between voice behavior and creative performance was stronger for employees with low challenge stressors as well as for employees with high hindrance stressors. Research limitations/implications This study employs a cross-sectional design with data collected from the same source. Practical implications The findings suggest that employees should be encouraged to voice out their opinions and ideas. Work-related stressors should be treated differently to expand the effects of voice behavior on creative performance. Originality/value This study is one of the few to establish boundary conditions from the contextual perspective on the effect of voice behavior on employee performance. Considering whether work-related stressor is a challenge or a hindrance could possibly result in a better understanding of the role of work-related stressors in the voice behavior-creative performance relationship. An empirical evidence is provided for the positive relationship between voice behavior and employee performance outcomes.