Personality at the Centre: How Network Brokerage and Traits Shape Voice Behaviour in Online Communities

Changing the status quo and promoting innovation requires individuals to speak up and engage in voice behaviour. Yet, the interactions that foster or inhibit voice remain insufficiently understood, particularly with regard to personal agency, how an individual's personality interacts with their network position to influence voice. This study examines how Big Five personality traits moderate the relationship between an individual's brokerage position and their voice behaviour within an online community context. Using data from 500 users of a Q&A community on the Stack Exchange network, we analyse daily user interactions and posts to capture both network centrality and voice behaviour. The findings highlight the importance of jointly considering personality and network structure in predicting when individuals voice constructive ideas and concerns. The study contributes to voice and network research by demonstrating how personality‐network alignment explains the expression of voice and by outlining implications for fostering voice.