Psychological safety, employee voice, and work engagement

Abstract

I examined the relationships among psychological safety, employee voice, and work engagement. Based on a literature review, I hypothesized that psychological safety would directly affect employees' engagement at work, and indirectly affect work engagement via employee voice. A validated survey was used to collect data from 153 employees of a large manufacturing company in China. The results of structural equation modeling offered support for the full mediating role of employee voice in the psychological safety–work engagement relationship. Employees who perceived psychological safety were more likely to exhibit voice behavior; employee voice, in turn, promoted work engagement. These findings extend prior research and shed light on how employees' psychological safety affects their work engagement. Discussion and implications of the results are presented.

Let's work together, especially in the pandemic: finding ways to encourage problem-focused voice behavior among passionate employees

“…But a willingness to report on persistent difficulties that threaten losses to the organization can be greatly beneficial for team and organizational outcomes (Morrison & Milliken, 2000;Ye et al, 2019). It also might help the problem-focused voicers, such as by boosting their psychological well-being (Avey et al, 2012), work engagement (Ge, 2020), creativity (Song et al, 2017), or job performance (Ng & Feldman, 2012). Determining what pushes employees to express their opinions proactively, instead of remaining passive, thus is critical.…”

“…For example, if employees fear that their jobs might be in jeopardy due to the pandemic (Almeida & Duarte Santos, 2020), they can leverage their shared beliefs with colleagues to speak up and identify a reasonable role for themselves in the organization's future. Moreover, if the pandemic creates a significant perceived threat to the quality of their job functioning, employees might use their shared work-related mindsets with colleagues to evoke collegial support, another type of resource gain, when they express concerns about the problems (Chen et al, 2005;Ge, 2020).…”

“…For example, if employees fear that their jobs might be in jeopardy due to the pandemic (Almeida and Duarte Santos, 2020), they can leverage their shared beliefs with colleagues to speak up and identify a reasonable role for themselves in the organization's future. Moreover, if the pandemic creates a significant perceived threat to the quality of their job functioning, employees might use their shared work-related mindsets with colleagues to evoke collegial support, another type of resource gain, when they express concerns about the problems (Chen et al , 2005; Ge, 2020). Being aligned in their views of the organization's future makes it more likely that other members embrace employees' reports of any pandemic-related problems that their organization might be facing (De Clercq et al , 2013), which then should increase the persistence of their problem-focused voice behavior (Quinn et al , 2012).…”

The Relationship Between Psychological Quality Education and Mental Health Level of College Students by Educational Psychology

“…Emotional infection refers to the creation of a situational atmosphere, which has a certain influence on students’ emotions and makes them receive educational content, such as visiting the school history museum, carrying out recreational activities, creating a warm family atmosphere, etc. Psychological research has proved that it is more conducive to receiving and understanding knowledge in a comfortable mood ( Prata et al, 2018 ; Ge, 2020 ). By creating a comfortable environment and enriching practical activities, the educated can maintain a happy mood in the process of receiving education.…”

Overworked, friendless, and constrained, but also helpful: How workplace adversity prompts employees to use task conflict to suggest organizational improvements

“…Employees' voice behaviours can lead to both organizational and individual well-being (Carr & Mellizo, 2013;Farndale et al, 2011;Holland et al, 2011) because they involve employees speaking up with suggestions about how to improve the current organizational situation (Van Dyne et al, 2003;Venkataramani & Tangirala, 2010) and also enable those employees to "have their own say over matters that affect their working lives" (Barry & Wilkinson, 2016, p. 265). In turn, voice behaviours can fuel employees' motivation levels (Parker, 1993), work engagement (Ge, 2020), organizational status (Weiss & Morrison, 2019), and career success (Seibert et al, 2001). Despite these benefits, speaking up about possible organizational improvements is challenging, because other organizational members might regard such efforts as disruptive or threatening to their power bases (Barry & Wilkinson, 2016;Liang & Yeh, 2019;Van Dyne et al, 1995).…”