Roles of gender and basic need satisfaction in decent work perception and voice behavior
ISSN: 0142-5455
Article publication date: 18 August 2020
Issue publication date: 29 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
How to foster voice behavior has always been a hot topic in organizational research; however, the mechanism through which performing decent work affects employee voice behavior remains to be fully understood. To address this deficiency, the current study investigates how basic need satisfaction may relate to perceived decent work and voice behavior and the moderating role of gender. Our research draws upon self-determination theory and social information processing theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical model was tested using two-wave investigation data collected from a sample of 349 employees and 85 supervisors in Southwest China.
Findings
Decent work perception was positively related to voice behavior, and this relationship was partially mediated by basic need satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between decent work perception and basic need satisfaction as well as the indirect effect of decent work perception on voice behavior via basic need satisfaction was stronger for men than for women.
Originality/value
This study highlights the pivotal roles of basic need satisfaction and gender in the consequences of decent work perception in the workplace. The authors provide new insights into the relationship between decent work perception and voice behavior and inspire scholars to elucidate other explanatory mechanisms in this link.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research project is supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of South China University of Technology [2018YBXMPY14] Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (CN) [No. 2020A1515010324] Key Research Projects of Universities in Guangdong Province [No. 2019WZDXM01].
Citation
Huang, W., Shen, J., Yuan, C. and Li, M. (2021), "Roles of gender and basic need satisfaction in decent work perception and voice behavior", Employee Relations, Vol. 43 No. 1, pp. 263-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-03-2020-0107
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited