Abstract
The new digital age introduces new challenges and opportunities for leaders to engage their followers in voice behavior. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the objective of this paper is to examine the mediating role of employee engagement and the moderating role of the degree of digital communication by conducting two independent studies comprised of 116 and 188 employees. Results indicated that the positive effect of LMX on voice was mediated by employee engagement. Analyzing the moderation effects of the degree of digital communication, we found that the degree of digital communication attenuated the increase in employee engagement associated with LMX. We contribute to the literature on LMX and employee engagement by showing that while voice behaviors are reduced via the increased use of digital communication in the workplace, leaders can leverage digital communications to engage employees with lower LMX.
Highlights
The introduction of new communication technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic encourages organizations to use digital communication tools to maintain high employee performance levels (Bailey & Breslin, In Press; Raghuram et al, 2019)
The results describe a positive correlation between employee engagement and leader-member exchange (LMX) (r = .38, p < .01) and voice (r = .45, p < .01)
The social exchange perspective has been key in understanding the dynamics between leaders and followers within a LMX (Cropanzano et al, 2017; Van Dyne et al, 2008), our findings suggest that employee engagement is a mechanism that explains how LMX influences citizenship behavior by the follower, such as voice
Summary
The introduction of new communication technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic encourages organizations to use digital communication tools to maintain high employee performance levels (Bailey & Breslin, In Press; Raghuram et al, 2019). In alignment with the heightened importance of digital communication tools, researchers have started to pay increased attention to the relative use of communication technology by leaders (Hill et al, 2014; Raghuram et al, 2019). Research on leadership has recognized the importance of high-quality leader-member exchanges, suggesting that the quality of social exchanges between leaders and followers plays a central role in an individuals’ performance at work (see for a review: Martin et al, 2016). The core idea guiding research on leader-member exchange (LMX) is that leaders develop differential relationships with employees and that the relationship quality determines the level. By looking at the LMX from a motivational perspective, we hope to add our understanding of the explanatory mechanisms of employee engagement between LMX and voice
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