Many companies have instituted programs that empower employees to speak up more. However, little is known about the type of voice – supportive versus challenging – that powerful employees tend to adopt when communicating with supervisors. To this end, we hypothesized that fueling employees’ inner sense of power would actually promote them to strategically voice supportively than challenge the status quo. Importantly, we identified underlying motivational and cognitive mechanisms that drive this effect. Across three multi-method studies, we provide empirical support to the proposed model. In Study 1, a preregistered experiment, we revealed a causal relationship between employees’ sense of power and preference for supportive over challenging voice. In Study 2, a field study with high-tech employees and their supervisors, we showed that power significantly fuels instrumental motive among employees and their subsequent use of more supportive voice. Finally in Study 3, a field experiment with call center agents, we further demonstrated the mediating effects of instrumental motive and task conflict on the use of supportive voice. Together, these findings reveal power’s influence goes beyond the simple liberation of more employee voice; power ironically also motivates more strategic usage of supportive voice that may not result in the intended goal for change.
