scholarly journals Employee Voice: A Mechanism to Harness Employees’ Potential for Sustainable Success

Author(s):  
Hengwei Zhu ◽  
Muhammad Kamran Khan ◽  
Shakira Nazeer ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Qinghua Fu ◽  
...  

Listening to employees’ concerns reduces their dissatisfaction, but moreover, for an organization to achieve sustainable success, employees must raise their creative voice and give their input in decision-making without the fear of rejection in a psychologically safe environment. Ethical leaders facilitate such a participative style of management. A bureaucratic culture, as is generally encountered in Pakistan’s work settings, poses real challenges to those who dare to speak up, therefore the importance of ethical leadership, leader–member exchange (LMX), and psychological safety cannot be neglected as coping mechanisms to sustain the employee voice for mutual gains. To investigate ethical leadership’s mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions on voice behavior, we examined a moderated mediation model with the leader–member exchange as a moderator and psychological safety as a mediator. Grounded in social exchange theory (SET), the current study uniquely posits and tests that employees feel psychologically safe in the presence of an ethical leader with whom they have high-quality social exchanges. Data were collected from 281 employees from the public corporations and private enterprises of the petroleum sector of Karachi. Results of the analysis, through SPSS and AMOS, revealed that psychological safety mediated the relationship of ethical leadership and voice behavior, while the indirect effect of ethical leadership on voice behavior (via psychological safety) is stronger for those employees who enjoy high-quality exchanges with ethical leaders. LMX was also found to moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior. Contributions, recommendations, and limitations of the current study and further research areas are also discussed. The study offers practical insight on the mechanism of ethical leadership on employee voice behavior and recommends leaders to develop social exchanges to improve voice behavior for sustainable success.

Author(s):  
Xue ◽  
Li ◽  
Liang ◽  
Li

We theorized and tested a leader-member perspective beyond the existing studies in paradoxical leadership and employee voice behavior. We proposed that paradoxical leadership influences employees’ voice behavior through psychological safety and self-efficacy. We also theorized that team size influences an extent to which the subordinates internalize their self-efficacy and psychological safety to exhibit proactive behavior. In a longitudinal study conducted on 155 subordinates and 96 supervisors in China, we found that when leaders adopt paradoxical behavior, employees are more likely to engage into promotive voice behavior; however, employees’ prohibitive voice behavior is reduced when their leaders adopt paradoxes in leadership behavior. Additionally, psychological safety mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and promotive voice behavior. Further, team size has significant interaction effects with psychological safety on promotive voice behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maie Stein ◽  
Sylvie Vincent-Höper ◽  
Nicole Deci ◽  
Sabine Gregersen ◽  
Albert Nienhaus

Abstract. To advance knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between leadership and employees’ well-being, this study examines leaders’ effects on their employees’ compensatory coping efforts. Using an extension of the job demands–resources model, we propose that high-quality leader–member exchange (LMX) allows employees to cope with high job demands without increasing their effort expenditure through the extension of working hours. Data analyses ( N = 356) revealed that LMX buffers the effect of quantitative demands on the extension of working hours such that the indirect effect of quantitative demands on emotional exhaustion is only significant at low and average levels of LMX. This study indicates that integrating leadership with employees’ coping efforts into a unifying model contributes to understanding how leadership is related to employees’ well-being. The notion that leaders can affect their employees’ use of compensatory coping efforts that detract from well-being offers promising approaches to the promotion of workplace health.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-111
Author(s):  
Fong-Yi Lai ◽  
Szu-Chi Lu ◽  
Cheng-Chen Lin ◽  
Yu-Chin Lee

Abstract. The present study proposed that, unlike prior leader–member exchange (LMX) research which often implicitly assumed that each leader develops equal-quality relationships with their supervisors (leader’s LMX; LLX), every leader develops different relationships with their supervisors and, in turn, receive different amounts of resources. Moreover, these differentiated relationships with superiors will influence how leader–member relationship quality affects team members’ voice and creativity. We adopted a multi-temporal (three wave) and multi-source (leaders and employees) research design. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 227 bank employees working in 52 departments. Results of the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis showed that LLX moderates the relationship between LMX and team members’ voice behavior and creative performance. Strengths, limitations, practical implications, and directions for future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Mavis Agyemang Opoku ◽  
Suk Bong Choi ◽  
Seung-Wan Kang

This study examines psychological safety as a mediator in the relationship between Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) and voice behavior. Based on the conservation of resources theory, a moderated mediation framework was used to examine human capital investments, specifically employee education and tenure, as boundary conditions of this relationship. The research hypotheses were tested with a sample of 207 employee-supervisor dyads working in a time-lagged design. The study found that psychological safety is an intermediary mechanism through which LMX affects voice behavior. Employees’ level of education negatively moderates the relationship between LMX and psychological safety. Furthermore, the results suggest that organizational tenure accentuates the relationship between LMX and psychological safety, and strengthens the indirect effect of LMX on voice behavior. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed in addition to directions for future research.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Cheng ◽  
Haiqing Bai ◽  
Caixia Hu

AbstractStudies have shown that voice could be utilized as an effective method to improve organizational effectiveness. This study explores the relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice behavior by focusing on the mediating role of the error management climate and the moderating role of the employee's organizational commitment. Analysis of data collected in three phases in China indicates that the error management climate partly mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior. Also, organizational commitment is found to moderate the relationship between the error management climate and voice behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long W. Lam ◽  
Raymond Loi ◽  
Ka Wai Chan ◽  
Yan Liu

ABSTRACT:Given the importance of voice in ethical leadership theory, we analyze the relationship of ethical leadership to employee voice and the relationship of voice to exit intentions. Building on the theory of work engagement, we further hypothesize that cognitive engagement mediates these proposed relationships. To test these propositions, we conduct a field study to relate ethical leadership of supervisors, measured at time 1, to employees’ cognitive job engagement, measured at time 2. The analyses show that the relationship between these variables can account for supervisory ethical leadership’s association with employee voice and exit intentions. In a supplementary study using a different sample, we find that supervisory ethical leadership is related to exit intentions through voice. We discuss how these findings contribute to the literature on ethical leadership, employee voice, and exit.


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikodemus Hans Setiadi Wijaya

In today’s changing environment, employees’ voice behavior can enhance organizational effectiveness. This study tests an integrative model linking proactive personality, leader–member exchange (LMX), voice behavior, and employee–supervisor sex (dis)similarity. Sex (dis)similarity is posited as a moderator. Results showed proactive personality was positively related to both voice behavior and LMX quality, and LMX quality was positively related to voice behavior. LMX quality partially mediated the relationship between proactive personality and voice behavior. Employee–supervisor sex (dis)similarity moderated the effect of LMX quality on voice behavior. Employees working in higher quality LMX relationships with supervisors of dissimilar sex exhibited more voice behavior.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingjian Zhou ◽  
Shuisheng Shi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of the role of leaders in team relationship conflict. Leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation was hypothesized to be positively related to team relationship conflict. Additionally, ethical leadership was hypothesized to moderate relations between LMX differentiation and team relationship conflict. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were examined in a sample of 79 working teams. Data were collected via a questionnaire containing measures of LMX, team relationship conflict and ethical leadership. Findings – Hypotheses were supported by the data. LMX differentiation was positively related to team relationship conflict, and ethical leadership weakened the relationship between LMX differentiation and team relationship conflict. Originality/value – This is the first theoretical analysis and empirical study of relationships between LMX differentiation and team relationship conflict. Theoretically, by using LMX theory to account for team-level outcomes, this study extended power of LMX theory. Practically, these results suggest that leaders may be responsible for team relationship conflict.


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