Speaking Up or Holding Back? How Openness to Experience, Centralization, and Psychological Safety Shape Voice in Organizations

This research aims to understand the benefits of the personality dimension of openness to experience in organizational context. We draw from trait activation theory and RST to develop a model that considers personality and organizational dynamics that can create or hinder the social support necessary for employees to adopt voice behavior. Specifically, we argue that feelings of psychological safety emerge and encourage voicing from open individuals depending on the centralization dynamics in which they operate. We will test our theory using structural equation modeling with survey data collected from 200 participants, based on centralized and decentralized scenario.