When and why managers endorse challenging voice: The role of perceived need for change

Challenging voice – employee suggestions aimed at altering established managerial practices – is often portrayed as a threat to managers’ authority and therefore assumed to hamper endorsement. This prevailing view rests on the assumption that managers are primarily motivated by self-protection, yet it does not explain why some managers do endorse even highly challenging suggestions. Drawing from self-regulation theory and organizational change literature, we argue that challenging voice can be endorsed when managers’ perceived need for change is high. Specifically, when managers perceive a greater need for change, they are more likely to view challenging voice as fitting with unit goals, which in turn is associated with higher levels of endorsement. Across a multi-source field study (N = 321) and two pre-registered vignette experiments (N = 778), we find consistent support for our predictions and rule out alternative psychological mechanisms such as perceived threat.