Does It Matter Why I Do (Put Effort Into) This Job? Examining the Impact of Community College Employees’ Work Motivations on Their Voice Behaviors

Research Question: Employees join or work for higher education organizations for various reasons or motivations. How do these employees’ work motivations impact their propensity to speak up about various problems or ways to improve these organizations? Guided by self-determination theory, this study considers that question by examining the relationships between employee work motivations and their voice behaviors. Methods: To answer the research questions, data was collected via an online survey from 811 employees from a community college in the southwest of the US. Results: Regression analyses of data from those 811 community college employees show that employees’ work motivations do indeed matter when it comes to their voice behaviors. However, not all types of work motivations equally matter. Indeed, of the six work motivation dimensions that were examined, only intrinsic motivation was significantly related to prohibitive voice behaviors, and only intrinsic and identified regulation motivation were significantly related to promotive voice behaviors. Contributions: This study makes several contributions to the community college literature by identifying key antecedents to community college employees’ voice behaviors, and by shedding light on the role of community college employees’ work motivations in shaping their work behaviors. It also provides specific implications for community college leaders regarding how to increase their employees’ voice behaviors.