Influences Employee Voice Research Articles

Can employees’ trust their supervisor? The role of high-performance work systems and stewardship climate on employee voice

The focus of this research is to investigate the factors that influence employee voice behaviour by examining the integration of high-performance work systems, stewardship climate, and trust in supervisor. Drawing on social exchange theory and leader-member exchange, this study investigates the positive relationship between trust in supervisor, high-performance work systems, stewardship climate and employee voice. Data were collected in three stages from 376 Nigerian telecommunications customer-contact employees. Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the dataset. The findings indicate that high-performance work systems have a favourable association with employee voice, while stewardship climate has an adverse correlation with employee voice. Moreover, trust in supervisor is found to mediate and enhance the favourable relationship between high-performance work systems, stewardship climate, and employee voice. The relevance of this study to service industries, management research, and its practical implications is discussed.

To lead or not to lead? A cultural examination of leadership in independent hotels

PurposeThis study explores the impact of ethical and authentic leadership on employees' workplace perceptions, focusing on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), trust in leader, commitment, employee voice and empowerment in independent hotels across two contrasting Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) clusters: Germanic and Middle-Eastern clusters. It examines how national culture influences these relationships in the hospitality industry.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 1,678 employees in independent hotels in the Germanic European cluster (Germany and the Netherlands) and the Middle-Eastern cluster (Qatar and Turkey) using selective and snowball sampling techniques. Hypotheses were tested using two-stage structural equation modelling.FindingsEthical leadership significantly affects employee voice in Germany and the Netherlands but not in Qatar and Turkey. Authentic leadership positively influences employee voice in Qatar, Turkey and Germany but does not significantly impact trust in leader in any of the four countries. The study underscores the role of cultural dimensions, particularly power distance, in shaping these relationships.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by investigating the effects of ethical and authentic leadership on key organisational variables in culturally diverse contexts within the hospitality industry. The findings highlight the necessity of considering national culture in leadership practices and suggest practical implications for independent hotels to adapt their leadership approaches to enhance employee outcomes. Future research should explore cultural dimensions as moderators in organisational relationships.

The Mediating Role of Employee Voice between Despotic Leadership, Psychological Empowerment and Employee Performance

This research effort aims to address the indispensable factor of employee voice, which impacts employee behavior and causes negative emotions. Despotic leadership is a crucial constituent of the workplace and impedes performance-related outcomes. Psychological empowerment facilitates positive behavioral outcomes, including employee voice and performance. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by explaining the role of employee voice in despotic leadership, psychological empowerment and employee performance. The banking sector of Pakistan is one of the remarkable sectors that provides employment and financial services, but it faces various controversial employee issues including leadership, psychological, and behavioral issues that impede performance. This research paper contributes to bridging the research gap in explaining how employee performance is influenced by despotic leadership and psychological empowerment with the mediation role of employee voice. Despotic leadership is an essential element in determining the working environment; psychological empowerment is important for employees’ behavior that predicts employee performance. Most importantly, employee voice has central importance in at the workplace that predicts and impacts employee performance. employee voice creates the working environment that the firm desires. The mediating role of employee voice tends to establish the relationship between despotic leadership, psychological empowerment and employee performance. The current paper focuses on front-line employees of bank in Punjab, as data was collected by employing a simple random sampling technique; the sample size was 310 employees from different banks in different cities. The collected data was later analyzed on Smart-PLS 4.0 for relationship assessment. The results depicted that despotic leadership negatively impacts employee voice and employee performance, while psychological empowerment positively influences employee voice and employee performance and is mediated by employee voice. Limitations and future research recommendations are given in the conclusion section.

It's More About ‘We’ Than ‘I’: Employee-Supervisor Fit in Achievement Striving, Organizational Identification, and Employee Voice

AbstractBy integrating the theory of purposeful work behavior with the person-environment (P-E) fit literature, we employ a bilateral approach to examine how employee-supervisor congruence in purposeful work striving (i.e., achievement striving) influences employee voice behavior via an internal motivation mechanism (i.e., organizational identification). Using polynomial regressions with response surface modeling, we analyze data from 827 employees and their 197 supervisors in two studies. The results show that achievement-driven employees are more likely to speak up when employee-supervisor achievement striving is congruent, regardless of whether it is high or low. Furthermore, employee-supervisor congruence in achievement striving enhances employees’ felt oneness with the organization and organizational identification, which in turn fuels their voice behavior. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

How perceived socially responsible HRM and job insecurity influence employee voice behavior: does psychological availability matter?

PurposeThis study aims to examine the multifaceted connection between perceived socially responsible human resource management (PSR-HRM), job insecurity (JI), psychological availability (PA) and employee voice behavior (VB). Furthermore, it delves into the mediating roles of PA, and JI in the linkage between PSR-HRM and VB and the moderating role of PA in the connection between JI and VB.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data for this study were collected from a sample of 385 full-time employees in Vietnam. To analyze the data and explore the relationships among the constructs, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used.FindingsThe study reveals positive relationships between PSR-HRM, PA and VB. Furthermore, it demonstrates that PA serves as a partial mediator in the nexus between PSR-HRM and VB, while JI similarly partially mediates this association. In addition, the research identifies a positive moderating effect of PA on the linkage between JI and VB.Originality/valueGrounded in social exchange theory and social cognitive theory, this study uncovers significant relationships, providing nuanced insights into the intricate interplay among PSR-HRM, JI, PA and VB. It represents one of the initial investigations into the moderating influence of PA on the connection between JI and VB.

How does leader emotional labor influence employee voice: the mediating roles of psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy

PurposeThis study aims to explore the impact of leader emotional labor on employee voice. According to the emotion as information theory and the voice as a deliberate decision-making process framework, this study develops and tests a model that examines the mediating effects of psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted two studies to test hypotheses. Study 1 used a quantitative research methodology using a two-wave survey of 435 employees and 58 leaders in China. The research model was analyzed using multilevel path analyses. Study 2 collected 301 full-time employees from Prolific Platform. Hypotheses were tested using Mplus.FindingsThe results in Study 1 reveal that leader deep acting has a positive indirect relationship with employee voice via psychological safety. Conversely, leader surface acting has a negative indirect effect on employee voice through psychological safety. The results in Study 2 supported the hypotheses.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the voice as a deliberative process literature by introducing leader emotional labor as an antecedent of voice behavior. Additionally, this study indicates that perceived psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy are two important mediating mechanisms for implementing voice behavior.

How and when servant leadership fosters employee voice behavior: Evidence from Chinese local governments

Servant leaders serve others and the public altruistically. Knowledge of the relationship between servant leadership and followers’ attitudes and behaviors in the public sector remains limited, despite its benefits. Drawing on social learning theory and the theory of leader–member exchange (LMX), this study analyzes the mechanism through which servant leadership influences employee voice behavior in the public sector and explores the moderating effect of LMX. To test our research hypotheses, we employ two-wave data from 134 leader–employee dyads working in the Administrative Approval Service Center in a northeastern Chinese city. The results indicate that servant leadership predicts employee prosocial values motives and further influences voice behavior. Moreover, LMX strengthens the relationship between servant leadership and prosocial values motives, and its indirect effect. Our study sheds light on how and when servant leadership affects employee voice behavior, with implications for public administration practices and promoting civil servants’ voice behavior.

How Humble Leadership Influences Employee Voice

Abstract: In this study, we tested a serial mediation model that examines psychological safety and work engagement as mediators in the relationship between humble leadership and employee voice with reference to social information processing theory. Data were collected from 442 white-collar employees of two government-owned companies located in a major city in Turkey. The results showed that both psychological safety and work engagement mediated the relationship between humble leadership and employee voice. This study determined that humble leadership had positive cognitive (psychological safety) and behavioral (work engagement and employee voice) outcomes during the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.

The Differential Effects of Leader Food Safety Priority and Ethical Leadership on Food Safety Promotive and Prohibitive Voices: A Socially Desirable Responding Theory Perspective

ABSTRACT Studies on impact of different leadership styles on the promotive and prohibitive forms of food safety voices are limited. Therefore, drawing on socially desirable responding theory, this study examined the differential effects of leader food safety priority and ethical leadership on food handlers’ promotive and prohibitive forms of food safety voices. We found that leader food safety priority and ethical leadership influence employee voice through different mechanisms. Moreover, the indirect impact of leader food safety priority on promotive voices was stronger, while ethical leadership had a stronger indirect effect on prohibitive voice. Finally, leader – member exchange strengthened the indirect effects of leadership antecedents on both forms of food safety voices. This study provides theoretical and practical contributions to food safety voice literature.

The impacts of perceived leadership integrity, psychological safety, and organizational culture in sustaining employee voice

The effects of organizational culture, psychological safety, and perceived leadership integrity on employee voice in organizations are evaluated in this paper. Ten (10) companies in South Africa and Nigeria's financial, service, and manufacturing sectors served as the sample for this research. Intentionally, surveys were disseminated to 200 employees from five workplaces in Nigeria and 200 employees from five workplaces in South Africa. To test the investigation's hypotheses and collect data on participants' opinions on corporate culture, psychological safety, leadership integrity, and employee voice, 400 people were recruited. One hundred eighty-one (180) surveys were discovered in Nigeria, while one hundred eighty-three (183) surveys were found in South Africa. The data was collected and analyzed using SPSS version 29 (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences). According to this study, perceived leadership integrity positively and significantly impacts employee voice in South African and Nigerian organizations. It also showed how employee voice in South African and Nigerian organizations is favorably influenced considerably by perceived leadership integrity. Further, it demonstrated how perceived corporate culture favorably influences employee voice in South African and Nigerian organizations. Additionally, this study showed how employee voice in South Africa and Nigeria is positively impacted by perceived leadership integrity, psychological safety, and organizational culture.

Psychological Contracts and Employee Voice: Does Breach Matter?

Empirical evidence shows that the type of psychological contract and psychological contract breach affect employees’ work behaviours. One of these behaviours is employee voice, which is a key to organisational dynamics. This research aims to determine empirically the ways in which different types of psychological contract are linked to different types of employee voice, and the ways in which psychological contract breaches affect these relationships. The paucity of literature on the relationship between all three variables necessitated this research. The research targeted South African employees working in medium to large organisations with a staff component larger than 60. In a cross-sectional survey, the respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire on psychological contracts, psychological contract breach and employee voice. Correlation and regression analyses were used to test the relationships and the moderation effect of psychological contract breach on the psychological contract–employee voice links. A total of 620 respondents returned completed questionnaires, which showed acceptable psychometric properties. Relational psychological contracts correlated with promotive dimensions of employee voice, while transactional psychological contracts and psychological contract breach correlated with prohibitive dimensions of employee voice. The psychological contract–employee voice relationship was moderated by psychological contract breach only in a transactional psychological contract environment, and only for the prohibitive employee voice dimension. Psychological contracts and psychological contract breach, as well as the interaction between them, influence employee voice; with hindsight, this occurs in explainable ways. The results contribute to the understanding of the complex relationship between these variables and provide fertile ground for the formulation of targeted hypotheses. Practical recommendations are included.

To voice or not to voice? Employee caring practice, employee gratitude, and positive reciprocity norm in the hospitality industry

Drawing on principles of reciprocity, we hypothesize that employee caring practice influences employee voice behavior through employee gratitude. Furthermore, the extent to which employee gratitude affects employee voice behavior depends on the employee’s positive reciprocity norm, such that the positive direct relationship between employee gratitude and employee voice behavior is enhanced among employees with a higher level of positive reciprocity norm. We tested our hypotheses with a multisource and multilevel data collected from 54 hotels, 226 teams, and 876 frontline employees in China. Consistent with our theoretical arguments, the empirical results of this study confirmed the hypotheses. These findings shed new insight into how organizations in the hospitality industry can promote frontline employee voice behavior.

Conceptualizing ethical leadership in Eastern cultural context and examining its impact on hotel employees’ voice behavior

ABSTRACT This study aimed to conceptualize ethical leadership (EL) in a hospitality context, grounded in Eastern philosophical foundation. Four studies consisting of both qualitative and quantitative were conducted, involving 732 hotel employees from 11 hotels. Study one used literature review, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussion to conceptualize ethical leadership as a four-dimensional construct, including moral person, employee care, moral management, and social responsibility. Three empirical studies were employed (study 2–4) to examine the psychometric properties of the proposed scale, including content, convergent, discriminant, concurrent and nomological validity. A nomological framework was examined, in which ethical leadership was proposed to influence employee voice behavior via employee psychological safety and leader-member exchange. This study enriches ethical leadership literature and provides a reliable and valid measuring tool for hospitality scholars interested in studying leadership in Eastern cultures. It also provides insights for hotel managers to develop and enhance ethical leadership skills.

How Provisional Improvement Notices Influence Employee Voice and Silence

Health and safety representatives (HSR) have the power to issue provisional improvement notices (PIN) to their employer for safety breaches. This paper examines how PINs influence workplace dynamics or employee voice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with HSRs and other key stakeholders. They provided details of their organisations which were used to form three case studies. Some HSRs did not believe PINS would be required as management had implemented a positive safety culture. Other HSRs feared retaliation and were afraid to issue PINs. Overall, how PINs influence employee voice was primarily driven by workplace dynamics, management attitudes as well as broader economic and political factors. There was evidence that PINs increased the confidence of HSRs to perform their duties.

Job Standardization and Employee Voice

An organization expects its employees to comply with job standardization to improve its production efficiency, while also expecting them to make suggestions to improve their job performance. Are the two goals compatible? Does job standardization turn employees into active speakers or stifled ones? This study is about how and why job standardization influences employee voice. I use conservation of resources (COR) theory to articulate competing hypotheses and a mediating process for the individual mechanism of employees’ role orientation in their job. In a three-wave panel survey, 232 employees completed questionnaires. The results indicate that job standardization reduces employee voice by narrowing the employee’s role orientation, in line with the resource conservation argument of COR theory. The results further suggest that job standardization is resource-depleting and causes the employee to focus on resource conservation to fulfill job requirements. The employee is less likely to consume resources and thus less likely to voice ideas and suggestions. This study shifts our understanding of employee voice from individual, interpersonal and organizational antecedents to the neglected antecedent of job characteristics. Given that the effects of job characteristics have often been explained in terms of the job itself, i.e., job characteristics theory, this study provides an alternative explanation in terms of the worker, i.e., resource theory. Organizations standardize jobs in order to improve production; in doing so, however, they create a dilemma: job standardization makes production more difficult to improve because the employees are less likely to voice their concerns. This study provides a specific, job-related way for managers to keep employee voice from being stifled or ignored. I propose that job standardization should consider the relative importance of employee voice and be classified as either discipline-related or job-content-related. Abstract An organization expects its employees to comply with job standardization to improve its production efficiency, while also expecting them to make suggestions to improve their job performance. Are the two goals compatible? Does job standardization turn employees into active speakers or stifled ones? This study is about how and why job standardization influences employee voice. I use conservation of resources (COR) theory to articulate competing hypotheses and a mediating process for the individual mechanism of employees’ role orientation in their job. In a three-wave panel survey, 232 employees completed questionnaires. The results are consistent with the resource conservation argument of COR theory: job standardization is resource-depleting and tends to narrow the role orientation of employees, who thus focus on resource conservation to fulfill job requirements and are in turn less likely to consume resources and voice suggestions. This study provides a specific, job-related way for managers to keep employee voice from being stifled or ignored. Job standardization should consider the relative importance of employee voice and be classified as discipline-related or job-content-related.

Supervisor feedback, relational energy, and employee voice: the moderating role of leader–member exchange quality

Although scholars have attempted to explore supervisor feedback as an antecedent of voice, the underlying mechanism remains under-explored. The current research addresses this critical issue from the perspective of conservation of resources theory by delineating how and when supervisor feedback influences employee voice from an energy perspective. Using dyadic data collected from 671 employees and their 218 direct supervisors in a retailer company, we found that supervisor favorable feedback increases employees’ relational energy, which, in turn, promotes employee voice. Conversely, supervisor unfavorable feedback decreases employees’ relational energy and inhibits employee voice. Furthermore, we found that leader–member exchange quality is an important boundary condition for the relationship between supervisor favorable feedback and voice via relational energy. These findings highlight the role of energy in the relationship between supervisor feedback and employee voice. They also present implications for management to improve supervisors’ skills at providing feedback.

How and When Supervisor Feedback Influences Employee Voice: An Energy Perspective

Although scholars have attempted to explore supervisor feedback as an antecedent of voice, the underlying mechanism remains under-explored. The current research addresses this critical issue from the perspective of conservation of resources (COR) theory by delineating how and when supervisor feedback influences employee voice through an energy mechanism. Using dyadic data collected from 671 employees and their 218 direct supervisors in a retailer company, we found that supervisor favorable feedback increases employees’ relational energy, which in turn, promotes employee voice. On the contrary, supervisor unfavorable feedback decreases employees’ relational energy and thus inhibits employee voice. Furthermore, we found that leader-member exchange (LMX) quality works as an important boundary condition for the relationship between supervisor favorable feedback and voice via relational energy. These findings highlight the role of energy in the relationship between supervisor feedback and employee voice and offer managerial implications for supervisors to optimize their feedback on employees.

Impact of corporate social (ir)responsibility on volume and valence of online employee reviews: Evidence from the tourism and hospitality industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and irresponsibility (CSI) can influence employee voice behavior in online review platforms. This study utilizes online employee review (OER), builds upon ethical climate theory, and hypothesizes the independent and joint effects of CSR and CSI on two aspects of employee voice – OER volume and OER valence. Using novel OER data of US tourism and hospitality firms, we perform a panel data regression with industry and year fixed effects. The results indicate that firm CSR engagement increases both the volume and valence of OER, whereas CSI accelerates (attenuates) the positive CSR effect on OER volume (valence). These findings can help tourism and hospitality firms implement CSR strategies for enhancing employees’ word of mouth from both volume and valence perspectives.

Does Leader Humor Influence Employee Voice? The Mediating Role of Psychological Safety and the Moderating Role of Team Humor

Past research indicates that leader humor can bring many positive outcomes; however, its influence on employee voice has been largely neglected. We propose that leader humor can influence employee voice behaviors (i.e., promotive and prohibitive) via the mediating role of psychological safety. Drawing upon the substitutes for leadership theory, we further propose that team humor could moderate the influence of leader humor. Based on the latent moderated mediation structural equation modeling analysis, we found that employees whose leaders used humor more frequently perceived higher levels of psychological safety and in turn engaged in more promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors. Moreover, the indirect effects of leader humor were found to be more pronounced when teams have a low level of humor. On the other hand, leader humor has less influence on employee voice when teams have a high level of humor, which provides support for the leadership substitutes argument. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

How does authentic leadership influence employee voice? From the perspective of the theory of planned behavior

Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study examines how and when authentic leadership influences employees speaking out (voice toward peers) and speaking up (voice toward the supervisor) by demonstrating psychological safety, psychological ownership, and voice efficacy as key mediating mechanisms, and Chinese traditionality as a crucial boundary condition. A structural equation model analysis of a sample of 316 employee-supervisor dyads from China revealed that voice efficacy uniquely mediated relationships between authentic leadership and speaking up and speaking out, and played the strongest mediating role among the three mediators. A total effect moderation model analysis found that traditionality moderated the direct effects of psychological safety on speaking out, psychological ownership on speaking out, voice efficacy on speaking out, and authentic leadership on voice efficacy. Traditionality moderated the indirect effects of authentic leadership on speaking up and speaking out through voice efficacy and on speaking out through psychological safety and psychological ownership as well, suggesting that these effects were stronger for employees who were high, rather than low, in traditionality. This study contributes to our understanding of how and when authentic leadership influences employee voice and which intermediate mechanism plays the strongest role, and highlights improving voice efficacy and inculcating Chinese traditional values to enhance the effect of authentic leadership and bring about more voice behaviors.