MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONS


Not so fast? Rapid response to voice leads to perceived


inauthenticity Academy of Management, 69, 1, September 2025 LINK TO PAPER


ÖVÜL SEZER ASSISTANT PROFESSOR


Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration


Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Cornell University


Co-authors • Övül Sezer


Assistant Professor, Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University


• Danbee Chon, University of South Florida • Francis J. Flynn, Stanford University, California


Summary Employees voice their concerns in the hope that leaders will change their


behavior. But how do employees evaluate these changes? In the present research, the authors highlight the rate of behavior change as a key factor in determining leader evaluations: Leaders are seen as less authentic when they change rapidly in response to employee voice because people believe that true change takes time.


Te authors investigate this claim with three studies that adopt a mixed- method approach (n= 3,056). In Study 1, PhD students describe rapid improvement in their advisor’s behavior as less authentic than gradual improvement—even when these changes are desired. In Study 2, a stimulus sampling design is employed to test the robustness of this effect. Followers see rapid improvement as less authentic than gradual improvement across a wide array of leader behaviors. In Study 3, the authors highlight change difficulty as a moderator and subsequent voice as a downstream consequence: When change is hard, rapid improvement elicits a greater authenticity penalty, which undermines followers’ willingness to voice their concerns in the future.


CONTENTS TO MAIN


| RESEARCH WITH IMPACT: CORNELL SC JOHNSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS • 2025 EDITION


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