Communication visibility and employee voice: mediating role of feedback-seeking

Purpose Organizations have widely adopted enterprise social media (ESM) to realize workplace communication visibility linked to employee knowledge management and in-role job performance. Managers still face challenges in understanding whether communication visibility in the workplace stimulates employee extra-role voice behavior. In this study, self-regulation theory is applied to explore the mediating role of feedback-seeking on the association between communication visibility and employee voice. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was carried out on 219 working professionals in China who use ESM in their respective organizations. Findings Results show that employee feedback inquiry considerably mediates the relationship between communication visibility and voice. However, employee feedback monitoring shows no mediating role. Research limitations/implications Practitioners and managers must pay greater attention to the effects of communication visibility on employee extra-role voice behavior. In addition, when adopting ESM, employee self-regulation strategies can be implemented to gain the value of communication visibility. Originality/value This study presents the relationships among communication visibility, feedback-seeking and employee voice. Knowledge of communication visibility is extended by exploring its effects on employee voice. The current study also reveals the mediating mechanism underlying the associations between communication visibility and employee voice based on self-regulation theory.