Intention to voice. The TPB proposes that an individual’s self-reported intention
to perform a given behavior is the immediate determinant of his or her behavior
(Ajzen, 1991). Behavioral intention is regarded as a summary of the motivation
required to perform a particular behavior. It reflects an individual’s decision to
follow a course of action, and is an index of how hard people are willing to try and
perform the behavior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). In the voice context, the intention
regarding how vigorously an individual plans to speak up about organizational affairs
should predict how much effort s/he subsequently puts into practice. Therefore,
intention to voice represents “the generative mechanism through which the focal
independent variable is able to influence the dependent variable of interest” (Baron
& Kenny, 1986: 1173). Given that intention to voice and its motivational
implications are proximal to voice behavior, I contend that the influences of the
above three psychological mechanisms on voice behavior are indirect through
intention to voice. This is the first hypothesis in this dissertation.