When Inviting Voice Backfires: How Leader Dominance Shapes Employee Responses to Voice Solicitation

ABSTRACT Researchers have long sought to identify how leaders' behaviors shape employees' willingness to speak up (employee voice) or withhold their opinions (employee silence). Research often has portrayed leader voice solicitation as a universally positive behavior that promotes employee voice while curtailing silence. Drawing on approach–avoidance systems theory, we challenge this prevailing assumption and propose that the effects of leader voice solicitation depend crucially on employees' perceptions of leader dominance. Specifically, we theorize that when leaders with low perceived dominance solicit input, employees interpret this behavior as an opportunity that activates inspiration (an approach‐oriented emotion) and encourages voice. In contrast, when leaders with high perceived dominance solicit input, employees perceive this behavior as an ambiguous threat that triggers anxiety (an avoidance‐oriented emotion) and results in silence. We provide evidence from an experience sampling study (Study 1) and a vignette experiment (Study 2) to support our hypotheses. Together, our findings offer a nuanced understanding of when and why leader voice solicitation can elicit employee voice or silence, thereby advancing theoretical insights into the complex dynamics of leader–follower communication.