1.3 The Organization of This Dissertation
The purposes of this dissertation are to re-define the construct domain of voice
behavior and develop a new measure for it, explore the psychological mechanisms of
voice behavior, and investigate how to create supportive environments for employees
to freely express themselves. To address such issues, the whole dissertation is
organized into five parts. In Chapter 2, there is a review of the literature of voice
behavior and an identification of the theoretical gaps. In Chapter 3, three
psychological mechanisms are proposed to illustrate the underlying processes of
voice behavior: psychological safety, felt obligation to the organization, and OBSE.
A group of hypotheses are developed to elaborate their relationships with voice
behavior. In Chapter 4, a cross-level model is presented to further discuss how to
facilitate voice behavior in organizational contexts. Five hypotheses are developed to elaborate the joint effects of individual difference and contextual factors on voice
behavior. The hypotheses in Chapters 3 and 4 reflect the research gaps which this
dissertation tries to fill and the contributions it intends to make. In Chapter 5, the
results of three empirical studies to examine the key arguments in the dissertation are
reported---a study on scale development and validation of a new measure of voice, a
time-lagged study on the psychological mechanisms of voice, and a cross-level study
on the nomological network of voice behavior. Finally, in Chapter 6, there is a
summary of the main research findings and a consideration of the theoretical and
practical implications of the dissertation. Limitations and future directions are also
discussed at the end.