One (Rating) From Many (Observations): Factors Affecting The Individual Assessment Of Voice Behavior In Groups

Keywords

Challenge-oriented citizenship behavior; Group performance; Referent shift; Teams; Voice behavior

Abstract

This article reports an investigation into how individuals form perceptions of overall voice behavior in group contexts. More specifically, the authors examine the effect of the proportion of group members exhibiting voice behavior in the group, the frequency of voice events in the group, and the measurement item referent (group vs. individual) on an individual's ratings of group voice behavior. In addition, the authors examine the effect that measurement item referent has on the magnitude of the relationship observed between an individual's ratings of group voice behavior and perceptions of group performance. Consistent with hypotheses, the results from 1 field study (N = 220) and 1 laboratory experiment (N = 366) indicate that: (a) When group referents were used, raters relied on the frequency of voice events (and not the proportion of group members exhibiting voice) to inform their ratings of voice behavior, whereas the opposite was true when individual-referent items were used, and (b) the magnitude of the relationship between observers' ratings of group voice behavior and their perceptions of group performance was higher when raters used group-referent, as opposed to an individual-referent, items. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for scholars interested in studying behavioral phenomena occurring in teams, groups, and work units in organizational behavior research.

Publication Date

7-1-2015

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Psychology

Volume

100

Issue

4

Number of Pages

1189-1202

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038479

Socpus ID

84937073831 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84937073831

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