The current study integrated emotion, specifically anticipated regret, into the decision process for employee voice. As a cognitively mediated emotion, anticipated regret is unique from previously studied voice factors (i.e., motivators and inhibitors) that influence risk judgments and voice decisions. Two studies utilizing an experimental moderated mediation design was used to examine the indirect influence of risk on voice intent through both anticipated voice and silence regret. In both studies, high-risk voice situations led to higher anticipated voice regret, lower anticipated silence regret, and decreased intent to voice compared with low-risk situations. Anticipated regret for engaging in voice was found to mediate the relationship between risk and voice intent in both studies, and also exhibited a significantly stronger indirect effect. This indicates that employees differentially weigh the two types of anticipated regret, especially for situations with greater risk. These findings were consistent across two voice scenarios and two samples, illustrating its robustness to different workplace contexts. Importantly, our study indicates that judgments of risk influence an employee’s anticipated emotions, leading to regret-averse behavior. In contrast to previous research, this study demonstrated that emotion-based factors do not always lead to rash or irrational decision-making. Instead, anticipated regret was integrated into the traditional, utility-based voice calculation and allowed individuals to augment their voice decisions by anticipating and acting upon their desired emotional outcomes. By jointly considering traditional voice factors and anticipated emotions, we provide a novel pathway for organizations to understand employee voice and silence.

当前的研究将情绪（特别是后悔）整合到了员工声音的决策过程中。作为一种认知介导的情绪，预期的遗憾与先前研究过的会影响风险判断和声音决策的声音因素（即激励因素和抑制因素）不同。两项利用实验性中介调节设计的研究被用来通过预期的语音和沉默遗憾来检验风险对语音意图的间接影响。在两项研究中，与低风险情况相比，高风险声音情况导致较高的预期语音后悔，较低的预期沉默后悔和语音意图降低。期待着参与的遗憾两项研究均发现语音中的“介导性”可以介导风险与语音意图之间的关系，并且还表现出明显更强的间接作用。这表明员工对两种预期后悔有不同的权衡，特别是在风险较大的情况下。这些发现在两个语音场景和两个样本中是一致的，说明了它对不同工作环境的稳健性。重要的是，我们的研究表明，风险判断会影响员工的预期情绪，导致后悔厌恶行为。与以前的研究相反，这项研究表明，基于情感的因素并不总是导致轻率或不合理的决策。取而代之的是，将预期的遗憾融入到传统的，基于实用程序的语音计算中，并允许个人通过预期并根据其期望的情感结果来增强自己的语音决策。通过共同考虑传统的语音因素和预期的情绪，我们为组织提供了一种了解员工语音和沉默的新颖途径。