Good Workers and Crooked Bosses

The Effect of Voice Suppression by Supervisors on Employees’ Populist Attitudes and Voting

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6338293
AutoresAntonia Stanojevic (0000-0002-9544-3300, Radboud University Nijmegen, autor correspondente), Agnes Akkerman (0000-0002-6407-7563, Radboud University Nijmegen), K Manevska (0000-0002-6816-3274, Radboud University Nijmegen)
Ano2020
Volume41
Fascículo2
Páginas363-381
Data de publicação2020-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-895X • E-ISSN: 1467-9221
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/pops.12619
OpenAlexW2972705350
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas62

This study is the first to explore the effect of political socialization in the workplace on populist attitudes. We investigate the effect of workplace voice suppression on employees' populist attitudes and voting. We expect employees who were suppressed by supervisors to hold more populist attitudes and to be more likely to vote for a populist party than employees who were not. We argue that some employees experience voice suppression by supervisors as stressful, so splitting is likely to be employed as a defense mechanism. Splitting is achieved through cognitive distinction and antagonism between “the good workers” and “the crooked bosses.” Such a split mental framework can generalize into a worldview that contrasts “the pure people” and “the corrupt elite,” a core characteristic of populism. We predict that the extent to which suppression triggers splitting and consequentially incites populist attitudes and voting depends on employees' acceptance of power distance. We test our hypotheses using SEM on survey data from 2990 members of the Dutch labor force. Our results show that experiences of voice suppression are positively related to populist attitudes and populist voting. As expected, this effect is stronger for employees who are less accepting of power distance

Demographic economics · Economics · Elite · Political science · Politics · Populism · Power (physics · Public relations · Socialization · Voting · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology