Could transformational leadership predict employee voice behaviour? Evidence from a meta-analysis

Abstract

Employee voice behaviour is a crucial form of social capital for business organisations. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify the relationship between transformational leadership and voice behaviour. A meta-analysis of 44 correlations (n = 14 473) was conducted to evaluate the overall association, and a meta-regression was used to check potential moderators. The results indicated a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and voice behaviour (ES = 0.480, 95% CI = [0.391, 0.569]). The relationship between transformational leadership and voice behaviour is higher when using self-reported data. In this meta-analysis, findings on the relation between transformational leadership and voice behaviour seemed consistent across studies even though they vary by research design and context. Moderator variables of year, age, sex, tenure, same source, country, scales of leadership (SOL) and scales of voice behaviour (SOV) may explain the heterogeneity in effect sizes for this relation across studies.