“Called” To Speak Out: Employee Career Calling and Voice Behavior

This study is the first one to explore the relation between career calling and employee voice and two potential mediators of this relationship, felt responsibility for constructive change and employee optimism about the future. Surveys from 406 employees of a law enforcement agency in the Midwest U.S. were analyzed using logistic regression and bootstrapping method with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine support for the hypotheses’ main and mediating effects. A behavioral measure was used to capture employees’ promotive voice behavior. Results indicated that individuals with stronger career calling were more likely to engage in promotive voice, after controlling for personality, perceptions toward work, and organizational tenure. In addition, career calling was positively associated with both felt responsibility and employee optimism. Finally, felt responsibility for constructive change fully mediated the relationship between career calling and promotive voice. The implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Leader humility and employee voice behavior: The mediating effects of work engagement and cognitive emotion regulation strategies

BACKGROUND: Employee’s expression of voice needs cognitive and emotional resources to express the constructive challenge. Leader humility, with the characteristics of openness to new ideas and feedback, may provide employees with psychological resources to express their voice. This study considers work engagement and cognitive emotion regulation strategies as psychological resources and examines their mediating effects. OBJECTIVE: Referring to the conservation of resources theory and affective events theory, this study aims to examine the mediating effects of work engagement and cognitive emotion regulation strategies on the relationships between leader humility and employees voice behaviors. METHODS: This study conducted a questionnaire survey on managers and employees at travel enterprises in China. Based on a survey of 837 valid questionnaires, participants provided their perception for the proposed research model. RESULTS: The results show that enhancing work engagement and controlled emotion regulation strategies and reducing automatic emotion regulation strategies partially mediate the relationships between leader humility and employee’s prohibitive voice. CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing work engagement and reducing automatic emotion regulation strategies have the mediating effects. However, controlled emotion regulation strategies and promotive voice need much psychological resources, employee adopting controlled emotion regulation doesn’t affect promotive voice and have mediating effects significantly.

Family supportive supervisor behavior and promotive voice: When and why are there gender differences in work–family?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the differential association of family supportive supervisor behavior on promotive voice under different gender. Further, while employees’ self-concept factors have received considerable attention in the research on the triggering mechanism of employee voice, the authors’ knowledge about how and when family factors affect employee voice remains underdeveloped. Design/methodology/approach According to the resource conservation theory and gender role theory, the authors constructed a research model to investigate the influence and boundary of family supportive supervisor behavior on employee promotive voice and tested their research model using a paired data of 332 married employees and their direct supervisors of enterprises in China. Findings The findings suggest that family supportive supervisor behavior has a positive effect on employee promotive voice. Family supportive supervisor behavior can strengthen employee promotive voice by improving work-to-family enrichment and reducing work–family conflict, yet no significant mediation effect was found regarding family-to-work enrichment and conflict. Furthermore, family supportive supervisor behavior is more likely to improve female employee work–family enrichment and assuage male employee work–family conflict and thus enhance employee promotive voice. Originality/value This study sheds light on the different influential paths of family supportive supervisor behavior on promotive voice of employees of different genders and provides references for enterprises to motivate employees’ promotive voice.

The relationship between two dimensions of felt trust and promotive voice behaviour: the motivational mechanisms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivational mechanisms of felt obligation and intrinsic motivation by which felt trust affects promotive voice behaviour and to differentiate the role of two dimensions of felt trust (i.e. felt reliance and felt disclosure).Design/methodology/approachSelf-report data were collected from 269 employees using a two-wave online survey with one-month intervals. A cross-lagged panel model and structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsFelt reliance has a positive and significant effect on voice behaviour whereas felt disclosure does not. The relationship between felt reliance and voice behaviour is mediated by felt obligation and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, felt disclosure can indirectly affect voice behaviour through intrinsic motivation.Practical implicationsLeaders could make employees feel trusted to promote voice behaviour by allowing latitude and providing information at work. Exhibiting reliance through empowerment and delegation is superior to disclosing personal information.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the felt trust literature by investigating whether and how felt trust affects voice behaviour and by differentiating two dimensions of felt trust.

The Influences of Social Status and Organizational Justice on Employee Voice: A Case of Customer Care Workers

Employee voice plays a critical role in facilitating positive organizational change and development. This study seeks to identify the antecedents of challenging promotive voice, which indicates constructive challenge geared toward improvement. Specifically, we investigate the influences of formal, informal, and self-perceived status as well as the effects of interpersonal and procedural justice. The results demonstrate that: (a) informal status such as age was positively associated with challenging promotive voice; (b) self-perceived status was positively linked to challenging promotive voice; (c) both interpersonal and procedural justice increased challenging promotive voice; and (d) interpersonal justice moderated the relationship between self-perceived status and challenging promotive voice such that the effect of status was less pronounced when perceptions of interpersonal justice was higher. The findings highlight the significance of structural influences on voice behavior, calling for further research on status disparities, organizational justice climate, and employee engagement.

Psychological safety, meaningfulness and empowerment as predictors of employee well-being: a mediating role of promotive voice

PurposeThe core aim of this study is to explore how psychological safety, psychological meaningfulness and psychological empowerment predict psychological well-being in a mediating role of promotive voice.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional survey is employed to collect data from 456 front-line employees (FLEs) working in the banking sector of Pakistan. The collected data were analyzed utilizing the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique.FindingsThe relationship between psychological safety and empowerment is significant. The results support the direct and mediating role of promotive voice to predict psychological well-being among frontliners. Interestingly, the mediation of promotive voice to predict the relationship between psychological meaningfulness and psychological well-being is not supported.Practical implicationsThe managers should delegate authority to FLEs working at the front end. Moreover, voicing should be a delightful experience for employees. The management should listen to them carefully and also update the staff about the outcomes of suggestions rendered by them. Finally, rewarding employees can encourage promotive voicing among FLEs.Originality/valueThe psychological safety as an antecedent to promotive voice, promotive voice as a predictor of psychological well-being and the collectivist country context of Pakistan are unique products of this study.

Co-worker ostracism and promotive voice: a self-consistency motivation analysis

This study utilizes self-consistency motivational theory to investigate the association between employees' experience of co-worker ostracism and their promotive voice, while also examining the mediating role of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and the moderating effect of emotional stability. We collected three-wave data from personnel in North American organizations and found that social exclusion by co-workers hinders employees' expression of constructive views about work-related matters as it dampens their OBSE. We observed that this mediating role of OBSE is mitigated to the extent to which employees have emotional stability, a dispositional feature that helps them control emotions, discipline impulses, and handle challenges. Overall, our study identifies a key mechanism, employees' belief about their self-esteem and proficiency as an organizational member, through which co-worker exclusion hampers promotive voice, and it reveals how their emotional stability might contain this process.