IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i2p921-d724843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employee Voice: A Mechanism to Harness Employees’ Potential for Sustainable Success

Author

Listed:
  • Hengwei Zhu

    (Art School, City College of Huizhou, Huizhou 516000, China)

  • Muhammad Kamran Khan

    (Department of Management Sciences, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore 54000, Pakistan)

  • Shakira Nazeer

    (Department of Management Sciences, Virtual University of Pakistan, Lahore 54000, Pakistan)

  • Li Li

    (Design Academy Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Qinghua Fu

    (Department of Business Administration, Moutai Institute, Zunyi 563000, China)

  • Daniel Badulescu

    (Department of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, 410087 Oradea, Romania)

  • Alina Badulescu

    (Department of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, 410087 Oradea, Romania)

Abstract

Listening to employees’ concerns reduces their dissatisfaction, but moreover, for an organization to achieve sustainable success, employees must raise their creative voice and give their input in decision-making without the fear of rejection in a psychologically safe environment. Ethical leaders facilitate such a participative style of management. A bureaucratic culture, as is generally encountered in Pakistan’s work settings, poses real challenges to those who dare to speak up, therefore the importance of ethical leadership, leader–member exchange (LMX), and psychological safety cannot be neglected as coping mechanisms to sustain the employee voice for mutual gains. To investigate ethical leadership’s mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions on voice behavior, we examined a moderated mediation model with the leader–member exchange as a moderator and psychological safety as a mediator. Grounded in social exchange theory (SET), the current study uniquely posits and tests that employees feel psychologically safe in the presence of an ethical leader with whom they have high-quality social exchanges. Data were collected from 281 employees from the public corporations and private enterprises of the petroleum sector of Karachi. Results of the analysis, through SPSS and AMOS, revealed that psychological safety mediated the relationship of ethical leadership and voice behavior, while the indirect effect of ethical leadership on voice behavior (via psychological safety) is stronger for those employees who enjoy high-quality exchanges with ethical leaders. LMX was also found to moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior. Contributions, recommendations, and limitations of the current study and further research areas are also discussed. The study offers practical insight on the mechanism of ethical leadership on employee voice behavior and recommends leaders to develop social exchanges to improve voice behavior for sustainable success.

Suggested Citation

  • Hengwei Zhu & Muhammad Kamran Khan & Shakira Nazeer & Li Li & Qinghua Fu & Daniel Badulescu & Alina Badulescu, 2022. "Employee Voice: A Mechanism to Harness Employees’ Potential for Sustainable Success," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:921-:d:724843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/921/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/2/921/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frances J. Milliken & Elizabeth W. Morrison & Patricia F. Hewlin, 2003. "An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don’t Communicate Upward and Why," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1453-1476, September.
    2. Böckerman, Petri & Bryson, Alex & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2012. "Does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 660-680.
    3. James Avey & Tara Wernsing & Michael Palanski, 2012. "Exploring the Process of Ethical Leadership: The Mediating Role of Employee Voice and Psychological Ownership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 21-34, April.
    4. Brown, Michael E. & Trevino, Linda K. & Harrison, David A., 2005. "Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 117-134, July.
    5. Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu & Jin Nam Choi & Wei Guo, 2019. "Ethical Leadership and Team-Level Creativity: Mediation of Psychological Safety Climate and Moderation of Supervisor Support for Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 551-565, October.
    6. Brown, Michael E. & Mitchell, Marie S., 2010. "Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring New Avenues for Future Research," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 583-616, October.
    7. Neubert, Mitchell J. & Wu, Cindy & Roberts, James A., 2013. "The Influence of Ethical Leadership and Regulatory Focus on Employee Outcomes," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 269-296, April.
    8. Yang Qi & Liu Ming-Xia, 2014. "Ethical leadership, organizational identification and employee voice: examining moderated mediation process in the Chinese insurance industry," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 231-248, April.
    9. Amy C. Edmondson, 2003. "Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1419-1452, September.
    10. Raymond Loi & Long Lam & Ka Chan, 2012. "Coping with Job Insecurity: The Role of Procedural Justice, Ethical Leadership and Power Distance Orientation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 361-372, July.
    11. Walumbwa, Fred O. & Mayer, David M. & Wang, Peng & Wang, Hui & Workman, Kristina & Christensen, Amanda L., 2011. "Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader-member exchange, self-efficacy, and organizational identification," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 204-213, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenhui Ouyang & Yongyue Zhu & Zhiqiang Ma & Xinyi Qian, 2022. "Why Employees Experience Burnout: An Explanation of Illegitimate Tasks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Akanksha Bedi & Can M. Alpaslan & Sandy Green, 2016. "A Meta-analytic Review of Ethical Leadership Outcomes and Moderators," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 517-536, December.
    2. Angela J. Xu & Raymond Loi & Hang-yue Ngo, 2016. "Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 493-504, March.
    3. Shenjiang Mo & Junqi Shi, 2017. "Linking Ethical Leadership to Employee Burnout, Workplace Deviance and Performance: Testing the Mediating Roles of Trust in Leader and Surface Acting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 293-303, August.
    4. Walumbwa, Fred O. & Hartnell, Chad A. & Misati, Everlyne, 2017. "Does ethical leadership enhance group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct, justice climate, and peer justice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 14-23.
    5. Shirel Damti & Guy Hochman, 2022. "Personality Characteristics as Predictors of the Leader’s Ethical Leadership in Regular Times and in Times of Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    6. Zhen Wang & Haoying Xu, 2019. "When and for Whom Ethical Leadership is More Effective in Eliciting Work Meaningfulness and Positive Attitudes: The Moderating Roles of Core Self-Evaluation and Perceived Organizational Support," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 919-940, June.
    7. Rebekka Skubinn & Lisa Herzog, 2016. "Internalized Moral Identity in Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 249-260, January.
    8. Miao Qing & Muhammad Asif & Abid Hussain & Arif Jameel, 2020. "Exploring the impact of ethical leadership on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in public sector organizations: the mediating role of psychological empowerment," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1405-1432, December.
    9. DeConinck, James B., 2015. "Outcomes of ethical leadership among salespeople," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1086-1093.
    10. S. Hansen & Bradley Alge & Michael Brown & Christine Jackson & Benjamin Dunford, 2013. "Ethical Leadership: Assessing the Value of a Multifoci Social Exchange Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 435-449, July.
    11. Tran Quang Bao Phuc & Khalida Parveen & Duyen Thi Truc Tran & Dao Thi Anh Nguyen, 2021. "The linkage between ethical leadership and lecturer job satisfaction at a private higher education institution in Vietnam," Journal of Social Sciences Advancement, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 39-50.
    12. Samuel Hunter, 2012. "(Un)Ethical Leadership and Identity: What Did We Learn and Where Do We Go from Here?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 79-87, April.
    13. Alyson Byrne & Julian Barling & Kathryne Dupré, 2014. "Leader Apologies and Employee and Leader Well-Being," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 91-106, April.
    14. Yan Ling & Michelle Hammond & Li-Qun Wei, 2022. "Ethical leadership and ambidexterity in young firms: examining the CEO-TMT Interface," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 25-48, March.
    15. Colina Frisch & Markus Huppenbauer, 2014. "New Insights into Ethical Leadership: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Executive Ethical Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 23-43, August.
    16. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    17. Valentine, Sean & Godkin, Lynn, 2019. "Moral intensity, ethical decision making, and whistleblowing intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 277-288.
    18. Yuanjie Bao & Chaoping Li, 2019. "From moral leadership to positive work behaviors: the mediating roles of value congruence and leader-member exchange," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Niels Van Quaquebeke & Jan U. Becker & Niko Goretzki & Christian Barrot, 2019. "Perceived Ethical Leadership Affects Customer Purchasing Intentions Beyond Ethical Marketing in Advertising Due to Moral Identity Self-Congruence Concerns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 357-376, May.
    20. Yi Liao & Xiao-Yu Liu & Ho Kwan & Jinsong Li, 2015. "Work–Family Effects of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 535-545, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:921-:d:724843. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.