How does leader emotional labor influence employee voice: the mediating roles of psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy
Abstract
Purpose
This 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/approach
This 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.
Findings
The 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/value
This 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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 71902084) and the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Planning Fund Project (Grant Number: 23YJA630042) awarded to Jia Li, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 72002100) awarded to Ying Xia.
Declarations.
Data availability statement: The data supporting the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the first author.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethics statement: All data were collected following ethical principles for dealing with human subjects.
Citation
Li, J., Xia, Y., Ji, C. and Li, H. (2024), "How does leader emotional labor influence employee voice: the mediating roles of psychological safety and perceived voice efficacy", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-06-2023-0302
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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