A general view in the literature on silence is that supportive voice environments reduce employee silence. In a departure, we examine how and for whom managerial support in the form of voice endorsement might augment subsequent employee silence. To do so, we introduce the notion of managerial voice endorsement social comparison, which aims to encapsulate an employee’s perception of the difference between the managerial endorsement of their voice and that of their coworkers. Drawing upon the sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison (STTUC) model, we posit that having a relative advantage in receiving managerial support for voice over coworkers—that is, high managerial voice endorsement social comparison—is positively related to concern about being envied, which in turn is positively associated with silence. Additionally, the positive indirect effect of managerial voice endorsement social comparison on silence via concern about being envied intensifies for employees with higher superficial harmony. Across an experiment and two multi-wave field studies, we found consistent support for our hypothesized relationships and ruled out alternative mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
