Proactive Personality and Voice Behavior: The Influence of Voice Self-Efficacy and Delegation

Abstract

We conceptualized voice self-efficacy as a mediator and perceived delegation as a contextual moderator for researching the effect of proactive personality on voice behavior in a Chinese cultural context. We collected data in 2 waves using a sample of 205 subordinate-supervisor dyads working at 2 finance companies in China. Our results showed that voice self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between proactive personality and voice behavior, and that perceived delegation has a moderating role in this relationship. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.

How Does Paradoxical Leadership Affect Employees’ Voice Behaviors in Workplace? A Leader-Member Exchange Perspective

“…Xie et al [21] stated that as voice behavior requires a person to have relevant abilities and expertise to analyze potential problems and to provide solutions to them, voice self-efficacy is considered the key to it and can be developed by frequent experiences of speaking up in organizations. Additionally, employees having higher self-efficacy believe that they make a positive contribution to the teams and organizations in comparison to those having low self-efficacy, as they can better express their ideas and overcome fears through their voice behavior [59].…”

“…The evidences from existing literature have suggested that higher the self-efficacy, the higher the confidence in the ability to make decisions and complete a task successfully will be [20,21] (see Table 1). Similarly, the rationale behind psychological safety is that organizational members believe that failures are a part of learning and speaking up, as well as inquiring about anything is not subject to any form of repercussion from their leaders or other members [22].…”

Silence and proactivity in managing supervisor ostracism: implications for creativity

“…We broaden extant research by revealing how (1) defensive silence serves as a crucial mechanism that links supervisor ostracism with reduced creativity and (2) employees' proactivity helps to contain this course of action. In so doing, the findings build on the direct effect of proactivity on work outcomes, such as career adaptability, career satisfaction (Li and Yuan, 2017), intrinsic motivation (Horng et al, 2016), performance target orientation (Parker and Collins, 2010), job commitment, voice behavior (Xie et al, 2014), self-esteem, etc. Precisely, the advantages of being proactive, as established in our study, may also be more indirect in that employees who have the disposition to take charge (Wang et al, 2017) and adopt personal initiatives are well positioned to manage any negative work situation, such as supervisor ostracism.…”

The Mediating Role of Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Voice Behavior in the Relationship Between Proactive Personality and Job Performance

“…Fuller and Marler (2009) reported that proactive personality was related to voice behavior in a positive and significant way. Besides this, Xie et al (2014) suggested that proactive personality is positively related to the voice behavior of Chinese workers. Moreover, Kanten and Ülker (2012) discovered a significant relationship between these two variables; they believe that proactive personality is one of the most important factors affecting voice behaviour.…”