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Exploring the influence of paternalistic leadership on voice behavior: A moderated mediation model

Jianfeng Jia (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)
Shunyi Zhou (School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China)
Long Zhang (Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Xiaoxiao Jiang (Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, China)

Employee Relations

ISSN: 0142-5455

Article publication date: 8 January 2020

Issue publication date: 17 January 2020

1641

Abstract

Purpose

Drawn upon the perspective of implicit voice theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying mechanism as well as the boundary effect in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and voice behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Multiple-wave survey data from a sample of 368 employees in China were used to test the hypothesized moderated mediation model.

Findings

The findings show that both benevolent leadership and moral leadership related positively to voice behavior, whereas authoritative leadership played a negative role in influencing voice behavior. Employees’ implicit voice belief played a partial mediating role between paternalistic leadership and voice behavior. Furthermore, perceived HRM strength weakens both the mediation relationship among benevolent leadership, implicit voice belief and voice behavior, and the mediation relationship among moral leadership, implicit voice belief and voice behavior. However, the moderated mediation effect of implicit voice belief on the relationship between authoritative leadership and voice behavior is not significant.

Practical implications

Leaders are encouraged to behave benevolently and morally whereas to avoid excessive authoritative style at work, so that employees can be encouraged to speak out. Organizations are advised to introduce management practices like training and development sessions and to improve employees’ perceived HRM strength so that the implicit voice belief can be reduced, and the voice behavior can be stimulated.

Originality/value

The research provided a fresh theoretical perspective on the underlying mechanism between paternalistic leadership and employees’ voice behavior by unveiling employee implicit voice belief’s partial mediating role between paternalistic leadership and employee voice behavior. Furthermore, the study contributed to the literature of voice by adopting a more integrative perspective and exploring the role of the implementation of the organization’s system, i.e., perceived HRM strength that provided a boundary condition in the above mediation model.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 71672031, 71802077 and 71972032); LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program (Grant No. XLYC1807218) and Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 2019JJ50059).

Citation

Jia, J., Zhou, S., Zhang, L. and Jiang, X. (2020), "Exploring the influence of paternalistic leadership on voice behavior: A moderated mediation model", Employee Relations, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 542-560. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2019-0263

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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