Review of Employee Voice and Leadership
Review of Leadership behaviour and employee voice
Detert and Burris (2007) (henceforth referred to as authors) have carried out a quantitative research to investigate the relationship between two types of change-oriented leadership (managerial openness and transformational leadership) and the employee voice. Through their research they have also studied the effect of psychological safety and employee performance on the relationship between leadership style and voice behaviour.
Theoretical framework and hypothesis
In the competitive and fast changing business environment, employee voice can play an important role in steering the future of the organisation in right direction (Van Dyne and LePine 1998:109). Various researches on the “employee voice” (LePine and Van Dyne 1998:854) show that “employees weigh the advantages of speaking up against the risks and they decide to speak only when the advantages outweigh the risks” (Detert and Burris 2007:870). There are various factors, which influence this risk assessment like, psychological safety, personality differences and organisational contexts. This study focuses on organisational contexts, specifically the change oriented leadership behaviour. This is because based on their characteristics, “organisation leaders have the authority to reward as well as punish the employees for their voice behaviour” (Detert and Burris 2007:870).
Authors have picked up specifically two aspects of change-oriented leadership: transformational leadership and managerial openness. Being a deductive study, authors have formulated four hypothesises. “managerial openness is positively related to the voice behaviour”, “transformational leadership is positively related to employee voice”, and “psychological safely mediates the relationship between leadership behaviour and the employee voice” and “employee performance mediates the relationship between the change oriented leadership and the employee voice.” (Detert and Burris 2007:870)
Detert and Burris (2007) (henceforth referred to as authors) have carried out a quantitative research to investigate the relationship between two types of change-oriented leadership (managerial openness and transformational leadership) and the employee voice. Through their research they have also studied the effect of psychological safety and employee performance on the relationship between leadership style and voice behaviour.
Theoretical framework and hypothesis
In the competitive and fast changing business environment, employee voice can play an important role in steering the future of the organisation in right direction (Van Dyne and LePine 1998:109). Various researches on the “employee voice” (LePine and Van Dyne 1998:854) show that “employees weigh the advantages of speaking up against the risks and they decide to speak only when the advantages outweigh the risks” (Detert and Burris 2007:870). There are various factors, which influence this risk assessment like, psychological safety, personality differences and organisational contexts. This study focuses on organisational contexts, specifically the change oriented leadership behaviour. This is because based on their characteristics, “organisation leaders have the authority to reward as well as punish the employees for their voice behaviour” (Detert and Burris 2007:870).
Authors have picked up specifically two aspects of change-oriented leadership: transformational leadership and managerial openness. Being a deductive study, authors have formulated four hypothesises. “managerial openness is positively related to the voice behaviour”, “transformational leadership is positively related to employee voice”, and “psychological safely mediates the relationship between leadership behaviour and the employee voice” and “employee performance mediates the relationship between the change oriented leadership and the employee voice.” (Detert and Burris 2007:870)
References: Ashford, J. S., Rothbard, N. P., Piderit, S. K. and Dutton, J. E. (1998) ‘Out on a limb: the role of context and impression management in selling gender-equity issues’ Administrative Science Quarterly 43 pp.23-57 Bryman, A Detert, J. R. and Burris, E. R. (2007) ‘Leadership behavior and employee voice: is the door really open’ Academy of Management Journal 50(4) pp.869-884 Dutton, J Janssen, O. De Vries, T. and Cozijnsen, A. (1998) ‘Voicing by adapting and innovating employees: An empirical study on how personality and environment interact to affect voice behavior’ Human Relations 51 pp 945-967 Kark, R., Shamir, B LePine, J. A. and Van Dyne, L. (1998) ‘Predicting voice behavior in work groups’ Journal of Applied Psychology 83 pp. 853-868 LePine, J Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W. and Hewlin, P. F. (2003) ‘An exploratory study of employee silence: Issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why’ Journal of Management Studies 40(6) pp. 1454-1476 Saunders, D Van Dyne, L. and LePine, J. A. (1998) ‘Helping and voice extra-role behaviours: Evidence of construct and predictive validity’ Academy of Management Journal 41 pp. 108-119