Servant leadership and follower voice: The roles of follower felt responsibility for constructive change and avoidance-approach motivation

Ghulam Ali Arain, Imran Hameed, Jonathan R Crawshaw

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Our study contributes to research exploring the differential antecedents of employee promotive and prohibitive voice. We first examined the mediating role of employee felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) in the positive relationship between servant leadership and their prohibitive and promotive voice. We then tested the differential moderating effects of employee dispositional avoidance-approach orientation, where the indirect effect of servant leadership on prohibitive voice is weakened for the high avoidance-motivated, and the indirect effect of servant leadership on promotive voice is weakened for the high approach-motivated. To test our hypotheses, multi-source data were collected from 231 supervisor-supervisee dyads working in a range of companies and sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As predicted, employee FRCC mediates the positive relationship between servant leadership and prohibitive voice and these indirect effects are significantly weaker for the high avoidance-motivated. We did not observe the predicted weakening effects of high approach-motivation on the indirect relationship between servant leadership and promotive voice. It seems servant leaders may be less influential for those avoidance-motivated individuals already predisposed to enact prohibitive forms of voice, such as voicing concerns about harmful organizational processes and practices. Implications for social exchange and role theories, and managerial practice, are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-565
Number of pages11
JournalEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume28
Issue number4
Early online date25 Apr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jul 2019

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology on 25 Apr 2019, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1609946.

Keywords

  • Servant leadership
  • avoidance-approach motivation
  • felt responsibility for constructive change
  • voice

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