The voice literature assumes that voice is mainly driven by antecedents outside the voicer’s control - such as whether the leader solicits voice or the level of psychological safety. We challenged that assumption by testing whether an intervention on the part of the voicer - mindfulness meditation - can increase employees’ voice behaviors. We expected it to do so by increasing positive affect and thus increasing risk tolerance. We conducted a pilot test and tested our hypotheses in three main studies (N = 1066). Study 1 was an online vignette-based state mindfulness induction experiment. Study 2 was an 8-week on-the-spot mindfulness field experiment among employee-supervisor dyads at a construction company in China using multiple control conditions and supervisor-rated measures of promotive and prohibitive voice. Study 3 was a cross-sectional online experiment in which we measured state mindfulness and out-ruled alternative explanations including perceived risk and psychological safety. Our hypotheses were supported. We discuss the relevance of mindfulness meditation and its use as a voice intervention for the management and psychology literatures, as well as for practitioners.
