A meta‐analysis of empowerment and voice as transmitters of high‐performance managerial practices to job performance

Abstract

SummaryEmpowerment offers the predominant explanation for why employee perceptions of high‐performance managerial practices are positively associated with employee job performance. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we propose that high‐performance managerial practices also influence performance because these practices encourage employees to engage in voice. Additionally, we suggest that empowerment and voice together provide a more complete explanation for why high‐performance managerial practices and job performance are linked. In essence, we argue that empowerment transmits the effects of high‐performance managerial practices to job performance because it engenders voice. Using meta‐analysis of primary research consisting of 151 independent samples involving 53,200 employees, we find that not only do empowerment and voice independently transmit the effects of high‐performance managerial practices to job performance, but they sequentially mediate this relationship as well. Further, we distinguish among skill‐enhancing, motivation‐enhancing, and opportunity‐enhancing high‐performance managerial practices to identify when empowerment and voice are more or less effective in explaining associations with job performance. Although empowerment and voice transmit effects of all 3 types of high‐performance managerial practices to employee performance, these mechanisms appear to provide the best explanation for the effects of opportunity‐enhancing practices, and the primary reason why is because employees respond to opportunity‐enhancing practices with voice.