Helpless or hopeful? How and when incongruent CSR motivates employees’ voice behavior

The behavioral outcomes of incongruent corporate social responsibility (CSR)—in which firms prioritize external over internal CSR—have received increasing scholarly attention. While prior research has primarily examined employees’ negative reactions, little is known about how employees communicate their concerns to the organization. Addressing this gap, this study develops a moderated mediation model to examine how and when employees engage in destructive versus constructive voice in response to incongruent CSR. Using data from a scenario-based experiment (n = 234) and a two-wave, multi-source survey (n = 487), the results show that employees may engage in both forms of voice behavior. Specifically, the relationship between incongruent CSR and destructive voice is mediated by affective rumination, whereas the relationship with constructive voice is mediated by problem-solving pondering. Moreover, employees with a high controllability attributional style (CAS) exhibit lower levels of affective rumination and higher levels of problem-solving pondering when confronted with incongruent CSR, thereby reducing destructive voice and promoting constructive voice. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.