Exploring the Influence of Ethical Leadership on Voice Behavior: How Leader-Member Exchange, Psychological Safety and Psychological Empowerment Influence Employees' Willingness to Speak Out

Crafting a Job among Chinese Employees: The Role of Empowering Leadership and the Links to Work-Related Outcomes

The present study aims to examine the process through which empowering leadership shapes employees' work engagement and in-role performance by facilitating job-crafting behaviors, specifically seeking resources, seeking challenges, and reducing demands. Based on the extensive data from 733 Chinese employees across various organizations located predominantly in Chongqing and Xi'an, China, we carried out different types of statistical analysis such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationships among empowering leadership, specific job-crafting behaviors, work engagement and in-role performance, test our hypothesis and our conceptual model. The results from structural equation modeling (SEM) suggested that empowering leadership was positively related to employees' work engagement and in-role performance; empowering leadership was positively related to employees' job crafting (seeking resources, seeking challenges and reducing demands); seeking resources, seeking challenges and reducing demands were positively related to in-role performance, and seeking challenges and reducing demands were positively related to work engagement. In the relationship between empowering leadership and in-role performance, seeking resources serves as a mediating factor. Similarly, seeking challenges mediates the association between empowering leadership and both work engagement and in-role performance. Furthermore, reducing demands mediates the links between empowering leadership and both work engagement and in-role performance. The implications of these findings are subsequently discussed.

I Treated the Way You Treated Me: The Effect of Leader Hypocrisy on Employees' Voice Behavior

Purpose

In recent years, due to the increasingly prominent role of voice behavior in leader decision-making and organizational performance, such behavior has become a central topic for scholars. A majority of studies explore the "uphold" effects of multiple leader behavior toward the voice behavior; nonetheless, our study revealed the "undo" effect --- leader hypocrisy on voice behavior. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we investigated the relationship between leader hypocrisy and voice behavior, examined the mediating effects of cognition-based trust and affect-based trust, and the moderating effect of moral identity.

Patients and Methods

We conducted a three-wave survey in a large Chinese corporation to test the hypothesized model. We collected 562 employees to participate in this survey.

Results

The results show that leader hypocrisy negatively impacts employees' cognition-based and affect-based trust, and both types of trust mediate the relationship between leader hypocrisy and voice behavior, respectively. In the meantime, moral identity manifested the negative effect of leader hypocrisy on cognition-based and affect-based trust.

Conclusion

Our research not only enriches the related research on leader hypocrisy and voice behavior but also uncovers the underlying mechanism through which leader hypocrisy affects voice behavior and the boundary conditions of this effect. Meanwhile, our research provides a theoretical reference for increasing employees' voice behavior and promoting the healthy development of enterprises.

The Nexus Between Ethical Leadership and Employees' Perception of Workplace Safety During COVID-19 Under Mediation and Moderation Model

Background

Workplace safety is a crucial aspect of employee well-being and organizational success, with ethical leadership playing a key role in shaping employees' perceptions of safety. Today, the underlying mechanisms through which ethical leadership influences workplace safety perception remain underexplored, especially in the Pakistan healthcare industry. Based on the social cognitive theory, this study aims to investigate the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception and examine the mediating role of media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication and the moderating role of moral attentiveness.

Methods

An empirical survey method was used to conduct the quantitative study, with respondents representing nursing staff from hospitals in Pakistan. Data was collected using an online questionnaire during COVID-19, and Smart PLS was used to analyze the data.

Results

The study demonstrated that ethical leadership positively and significantly affects workplace safety perception. Media quality, communication climate, and supervisory communication mediate between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception. Moral attentiveness moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and workplace safety perception.

Conclusion

Ethical leadership is an essential tool that improves media quality, communication climate, supervisory communication, and moral attentiveness. The article presents a novel approach to examining the relationship between ethical leadership and workers' safety perceptions under the influence of mediating and moderating variables. By better understanding these dynamics, the study contributes to developing organizational strategies to improve workplace safety and overall employee well-being. In addition, it is a pioneering study exploring ethical leadership's role in influencing workers' perceptions of safety. Overall, the study is a great initiative that fosters the ethical concepts of individuals, thus achieving health protection and safety.

Ethical leadership supports safety voice by increasing risk perception and reducing ethical ambiguity: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Misconduct by business and political leaders during the pandemic is feared to have impacted people's adherence to protective measures that would help to safeguard against the spread of COVID-19. Addressing this concern, this article theorizes and tests a model linking ethical leadership with workplace risk communication-a practice referred to as 'safety voice' in the research literature. Our study, conducted with 511 employees from UK companies, revealed that ethical leadership is positively associated with greater intention to engage in safety voice regarding COVID-19. We also find that this association is mediated by relations with the perceived health risk of COVID-19 and ambiguity about ethical decision making in the workplace. These findings therefore underscore the importance of good ethical conduct by leaders for ensuring that health and safety risks are well understood and communicated effectively by organizational members particularly during crises. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our study and highlight further opportunities for future research to address the ethical dimensions of leadership, risk management, and organizational risk communication.

The impact of moral leadership on physical education teachers' innovation behavior: The role of identification with leader and psychological safety

With the growth of people's health needs and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is an inevitable trend to promote innovation behaviors of physical education (PE) teachers to innovate traditional physical education and adapt to national needs of sustainable development in the sports industry. Considering that moral leadership can promote innovation behavior of individuals through psychological factors, this study defines the types of innovation behavior, and from the perspective of psychological safety and identifying with leaders, discusses the impact of moral leadership on individuals' innovation behavior by using hierarchical multivariate regression analysis, which provides inspiration for schools to strengthen the innovation behavior of physical education teachers. In this study, 327 questionnaires were distributed to PE teachers in Chinese provinces and 287 valid questionnaires were collected. The analysis of the collected data was performed with the help of the SPSSAU data analysis platform. The following conclusions were drawn: First, moral leadership has a significant positive impact on the psychological safety and internal and external innovation of physical education teachers. Secondly, moral leadership influences employees' innovation behavior through psychological safety, and plays a part of intermediary role between moral leadership and internal and external innovation behavior; Third, by comparing the two impact mechanisms of innovation behavior, we found that moral leadership encourages employees to produce more external innovation behavior through psychological safety; Finally, strong leadership identity plays a positive role in regulating the relationship between moral leadership and innovation behavior.

Proactive personality and critical thinking in Chinese medical students: The moderating effects of psychological safety and academic self-efficacy

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to identify the relationship among proactive personality, psychological safety, academic self-efficacy and critical thinking, and to further explore whether psychological safety and academic self-efficacy could be a moderator in the association between proactive personality and critical thinking among Chinese medical students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The cross-sectional study was carried out from October to December 2020 in China. Totally, 5,920 valid responses were collected at four Chinese medical universities. Critical thinking, proactive personality, psychological safety, academic self-efficacy and demographic factors were assessed through questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to identify interrelationship clusters among variables. Simple slope analyses were performed to explore the moderating effects of psychological safety and academic self-efficacy.

RESULTS

The mean score of critical thinking among medical students was 3.85 ± 0.61. Proactive personality, psychological safety, and academic self-efficacy were shown to be important factors for critical thinking. Psychological safety and academic self-efficacy moderated the association between proactive personality and critical thinking. A simple slope analysis showed that high psychological safety and academic self-efficacy weakened the impact of proactive personality on critical thinking.

CONCLUSION

Most medical students surveyed in China might have relatively high levels of critical thinking. Psychological safety and academic self-efficacy moderated the association between proactive personality and critical thinking. More interventions related to psychological safety and academic self-efficacy will be helpful to improve critical thinking among Chinese medical students.

Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the psychological safety scale for workers

Although an increasing number of studies on psychological safety at workplaces has been conducted in both western and eastern countries, there are few empirically validated measures in Japan. Our purpose was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Psychological Safety Scale. Japanese workers were invited to participate in online surveys at baseline and at one-month follow-up (N=320). The Psychological Safety Scale was translated into Japanese according to international guidelines. Social support at workplace, work engagement, organization-based self-esteem, organizational justice, and job satisfaction were measured. Cronbach's alphas and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were examined for reliability, and its validity was tested by confirmatory factor analysis and correlational analyses. The results of the survey showed that respondents were 287 at baseline and 236 at follow-up. Cronbach's alphas of the Psychological Safety Scale were 0.91 (baseline) and 0.88 (follow-up), and ICC was 0.87. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a marginally acceptable fit. Overall, the Japanese Psychological Safety Scale had moderate to strong correlations with other scales. In conclusion, the Japanese version of the Psychological Safety Scale had acceptable levels of reliability and validity, and may be applicable for use in Japanese workers.

How Safety Climate Impacts Safety Voice-Investigating the Mediating Role of Psychological Safety from a Social Cognitive Perspective

Safety voice has become a popular research topic in the organizational safety field because it helps to prevent accidents. A good safety climate and psychological safety can motivate employees to actively express their ideas about safety, but the specific mechanisms of safety climate and psychological safety, on safety voice, are not yet clear. Based on the "environment-subject cognition-behavior" triadic interaction model of social cognitive theory, this paper explores the relationship between safety climate and safety voice, and the mediating role of psychological safety. We collected questionnaires and conducted data analysis of the valid questionnaires using analytical methods such as hierarchical regression, stepwise regression, and the bootstrap sampling method. We found that safety climate significantly and positively influenced safety voice, and psychological safety played a mediating role between safety climate and safety voice, which strengthened the positive relationship between them. From the research results, it was clear that to stimulate employees to express safety voice behavior, organizations should strive to create a good safety climate and pay attention to building employees' psychological safety. The findings of this paper provide useful insights for the management of employee safety voice behavior in enterprises.

Impact of Inclusive Leadership on Innovation Performance During Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak: Mediating Role of Employee Innovation Behavior and Moderating Role of Psychological Empowerment

This study investigates the effect of inclusive leadership on innovation performance with a mediating role of employee innovation behavior and the moderating role of psychological empowerment (PE). Supervisors and employees of Saudi manufacturing firms are the participants of this study. This study used a quantitative research technique with a cross-sectional approach and a self-administrative survey questionnaire to collect the data. The data were analyzed by using the Smart PLS 3 software. The results depict that inclusive leadership has a significant positive impact on the firm's innovation performance. Employees' innovation behavior has a significant mediating effect on the association of inclusive leadership and innovation performance. Findings revealed that PE has an important moderating role in the association of inclusive leadership and innovation performance. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge by finding that inclusive leadership has a significant effect on the firm's innovative performance and PE is crucial to enhance innovation performance.

Understanding the Link Between Work-Related and Non-Work-Related Supervisor–Subordinate Relationships and Affective Commitment: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Psychological Safety

Purpose

Based on social information processing (SIP) model and conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper is to examine the mediating and moderating roles of psychological safety (PS) in the relationship between work-related leader-member exchange (LMX)/non-work-related supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) and employee affective commitment (AC).

Participants and Methods

Cross-sectional data came from 213 enterprise employees in China. The participants completed the LMX scale, SSG scale, PS scale, and AC scale. SPSS PROCESS macro and RWA-Web were used to test the research hypothesis.

Results

Both LMX and SSG were positively related to employee AC. LMX was more strongly associated with AC than SSG. PS partially mediated the influence of LMX/SSG on AC. PS negatively moderated the influence of LMX on AC, whereas it did not moderate the influence of SSG on AC.

Conclusion

Different types of supervisor-subordinate relationships (SSR) were both beneficial to employee AC, and work-related LMX was more closely related to employee AC. Different types of SSR could both affect employee AC through PS. In addition, high PS also reduced the relationship between LMX and employee AC. Therefore, in the context of Chinese culture, enhancing employees’ AC within an enterprise can not only pay attention to the work-related LMX and non-work-related SSG but also the appropriate cultivation of employees’ PS.

Leader’s Implicit Followership and Employees’ Innovative Behavior: Chain Mediation Effect of Leader–Member Exchange and Psychological Empowerment

In the Chinese society, where power distance is high, leaders’ attitudes and behavior toward employees determine their career development as well as affect the entire team’s performance. Therefore, exploring the kind of employees that leaders expect in China is essential. Based on implicit followership theory perspective, this study considers leaders’ positive implicit followership (LPIF) as the main research variable and examines its influence on employees’ innovative behavior (EIB). Moreover, it explores the multiple mediation effect of the leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship and psychological empowerment (PE) in this influence mechanism. The study sample comprised 389 leaders and their direct employees at 45 large- and medium-sized enterprises in Shandong, Beijing, Hebei, Shanghai, Shanxi, Zhejiang, and other regions of China. We used the leader–employee 1:1 matching questionnaire, and the longitudinal research design was adopted to avoid homology variance, making the study results more realistic and reliable. This study used the SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 26.0 statistical software to verify the hypotheses. Our findings show that LPIF has a significant positive effect on EIB, and LMX and PE have multiple mediation effects on the relationship between LPIF and EIB. When the level of LPIF is high, LMX and PE are also enhanced, which in turn promotes the increase in EIB. This study provides a new perspective for subsequent research on the psychological mechanism of employees and suggests an important method for understanding leadership and following processes in an organization. It plays a guiding role for the management practice of an enterprise, selection of leaders, and training of employees.

Effects of Ambidextrous Leadership on Employees' Work Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment

The complexity of today's organizational environment increasingly requires leaders to think in a dynamic and flexible way to resolve contradictory issues. This study explored and compared the effects of servant leadership and authoritarian leadership on employees' work behavior from the perspectives of ambidextrous leadership theory and social exchange theory, and further examined the mediating role of psychological empowerment. In this study, 315 employees from state-owned communication companies in Shandong and Zhejiang Provinces in China were selected as subjects, and path analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that servant leadership positively predicted organizational citizenship behavior and task performance. While authoritarian leadership negatively predicted organizational citizenship behavior and positively predicted task performance, psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between the two leadership styles and organizational citizenship behavior and task performance. Moreover, psychological empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior played a multiple mediating role between the two leadership styles and task performance. The theoretical implications of these findings for advancing the ambidextrous leadership theory in Chinese organizational contexts and practical approaches for corporate managers to effectively use ambidextrous leadership style were discussed.

Developing and Testing an Instrument to Measure the Culture for Psychological Empowerment in Organizations (IMPEC)

Abstract. Psychological empowerment – the experience of competence, meaning, self-determination and impact at work – has become very popular in organizational research. Meta-analytic results show many positive consequences of psychological empowerment and many different antecedents such as positive leadership, high performance practices, and work design characteristics. However, scarce research is available on how organizational culture influences psychological empowerment. We believe a missing instrument is one reason for the underdevelopment in this field. For this reason, we developed IMPEC (Instrument Measuring Psychological Empowerment Culture) for measuring specific cultural values for psychological empowerment. IMPEC was tested in four studies. In the first study ( n = 208 German employees), the reliability, factor structure, and its relationship with psychological empowerment and affective variables were analyzed. The second study had two waves ( n = 182 German employees) in which the predictive and incremental value of the IMPEC for performance-oriented variables were evaluated. In the third study, the instrument was translated into English and validated in a US sample ( n = 346). Finally, a multi-wave study was conducted in a German setting ( n = 210) to test if the IMPEC could predict critical constructs better than the empowerment climate questionnaire.

How Ethical Leadership Prompts Employees’ Voice Behavior? The Roles of Employees’ Affective Commitment and Moral Disengagement

Previous literature has demonstrated that ethical leadership could predict employees’ voice behavior. However, it’s not clear how to heighten these positive effects of ethical leadership on employees’ voice behavior. Building on the AET and moral disengagement studies, we developed an integrated model. A three-wave field study (N = 232) investigated the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ affective commitment and the moderating role of employees’ moral disengagement. Our matched data analysis results indicated that: (1) employees’ affective commitment partly mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ voice behavior. In addition, employees’ moral disengagement moderated (2) the effect of ethical leadership on employees’ affective commitment and (3) the effect of employees’ affective commitment on voice behavior, similarly, (4) the indirect effect of ethical leadership on employees’ voice behavior via employees’ affective commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

What Drives Employees' Innovative Behaviors in Emerging-Market Multinationals? An Integrated Approach

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely damaged the global industrial supply chain and accelerated the digital transformation of the global economy. In such rapidly changing environments, multinational corporations (MNCs) should encourage employees to be more innovative in various fields than ever before. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have become psychologically anxious, their working conditions have deteriorated, and they are in danger of losing their jobs. In this study, we aim to address the question of whether servant leadership facilitates the innovative behavior of employees working in emerging-market MNCs when servant leadership is adopted within the firms. In addition, we explore the mediating roles of work-life balance and psychological stability perceived by employees, and the moderating role of organizational climate in the relationship between servant leadership and MNC employees' innovative behavior. In doing so, we collected data from a sample of 307 Chinese employees who are employed by five different Chinese MNCs from the Internet, information technology, electronics, and e-commerce industries. Based on a sample of survey data collected from employees of Chinese MNCs, we empirically test these ideas by specifically examining how servant leadership may shape the innovation behavior of employees in these MNCs. The results suggest that servant leadership positively influences employees' innovative behavior, and that the contribution of servant leadership to employees' innovative behavior is mediated by work-life balance and psychological stability as well as moderated by the degree of organizational climate. Moreover, the different organizational climates of these MNC employees are also expected to significantly shape the relationship between servant leadership and employees' innovative behavior. This study enriches our understanding of the importance of servant leadership in driving the innovative behaviors of employees in emerging-market MNCs and provides new insights into the mechanisms through which emerging-market MNCs can motivate their employees to be more innovative in their jobs. Thus, this study contributes to the research on human resource management by offering important implications vis-à-vis how MNCs manage their employees more effectively in addressing and responding to the dramatically changing global landscape in the post COVID-19 era.

Employee Voice: A Mechanism to Harness Employees' Potential for Sustainable Success

Listening to employees’ concerns reduces their dissatisfaction, but moreover, for an organization to achieve sustainable success, employees must raise their creative voice and give their input in decision-making without the fear of rejection in a psychologically safe environment. Ethical leaders facilitate such a participative style of management. A bureaucratic culture, as is generally encountered in Pakistan’s work settings, poses real challenges to those who dare to speak up, therefore the importance of ethical leadership, leader–member exchange (LMX), and psychological safety cannot be neglected as coping mechanisms to sustain the employee voice for mutual gains. To investigate ethical leadership’s mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions on voice behavior, we examined a moderated mediation model with the leader–member exchange as a moderator and psychological safety as a mediator. Grounded in social exchange theory (SET), the current study uniquely posits and tests that employees feel psychologically safe in the presence of an ethical leader with whom they have high-quality social exchanges. Data were collected from 281 employees from the public corporations and private enterprises of the petroleum sector of Karachi. Results of the analysis, through SPSS and AMOS, revealed that psychological safety mediated the relationship of ethical leadership and voice behavior, while the indirect effect of ethical leadership on voice behavior (via psychological safety) is stronger for those employees who enjoy high-quality exchanges with ethical leaders. LMX was also found to moderate the relationship between ethical leadership and voice behavior. Contributions, recommendations, and limitations of the current study and further research areas are also discussed. The study offers practical insight on the mechanism of ethical leadership on employee voice behavior and recommends leaders to develop social exchanges to improve voice behavior for sustainable success.

Investigating the relationship between person-environment fit and safety behavior: A social cognition perspective

INTRODUCTION

This study explored the relationship between person-job fit and safety behavior, as well as the mediating role played by psychological safety, from the perspective of social cognitive theory and person-environment fit theory.

METHOD

A total of 800 employees from petroleum enterprises were recruited, with cluster random sampling used to collect data in two stages.

RESULTS

The results showed that employees' safety behavior is higher under the condition of "high person-job fit-high person-organization fit" than under that of "low person-job fit-low person-organization fit." In other words, the more congruent the level of person-job fit and person-organization fit for a given employee, the higher their level of safety behavior. Practical Applications: Psychological safety plays a mediating role between the congruence of both person-job fit and person-organization fit and employees' safety behavior.

Risk-facing or risk-avoiding? Group loyalty encourages subordinates to tell the truth

The aim of this study is to understand individual motivation to speak up, which extends the application of voice behavior. Employing a cross-level moderation framework, this paper explored the relationship between employees' authoritarian leadership perceptions and their speaking-up behavior, as reported by supervisors, along with a moderating effect of group loyalty. Specifically, we propose a conceptual variable, "saying nothing but good news", which related to the choice of the selective disclosure of information to others. Utilizing data of 140 supervisors and 603 subordinates in the Taiwanese military, results of the hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis revealed that authoritarian leadership was negatively related to prohibitive voice, but positively related to saying nothing but good news. Group loyalty moderated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and prohibitive voice when group loyalty is high. Implications for management and future research are discussed.

The Bottom-Line Mentality of Leaders in Education and Training Institutions: Where to Go for Innovation?

According to the social exchange theory, this study analyzed how a bottom-line mentality (BLM) among leaders affects teachers' innovative behavior and how this relationship is mediated by relative deprivation and psychological safety and moderated by person-organization values fit. Using two stages of data collection, 491 responses from teachers were obtained and analyzed. The results revealed that leader BLM significantly negatively affected teachers' innovative behavior, and relative deprivation and psychological safety both partially mediated this influence of leader BLM. Person-organization values fit negatively moderated the positive effect of leader BLM on teachers' relative deprivation and the negative effect of leader BLM on teachers' psychological safety. This study enriches the current literature about BLM and tests the influence of leader BLM on teacher's innovation in the Chinese education and training institutions, and provides insights into favorable educational management practices.

Exploring the Relationship between Despotic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self Efficacy and Leader-Member Exchange

This study explores the effects of despotic leadership (DL) on employee job satisfaction (JS) using self-efficacy (SE) as a mediating variable and leader–member exchange (LMX) as a moderated variable. Building on the social learning and social exchange theory, our research proposes a research model. In this model, despotic leadership affects employee job satisfaction both directly and indirectly through self-efficacy and leader–member exchange. We used a questionnaire survey analysis approach to collect data. Data were collected from the employees of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in Guangdong Province, P.R. China. A pilot test of 20 participants with similar demographics as the final sample was performed to test the usability of the questionnaire. We distributed 500 questionnaires among the target population. In total, 230 usable questionnaires were returned, resulting in a response rate of 53%. To estimate the proposed relationships in the theoretical framework, we used SPSS and AMOS. The results of this study confirmed that despotic leadership has a negative impact on employee job satisfaction. Moreover, the outcomes of this study indicate that self-efficacy has a mediating effect between despotic leadership and employee job satisfaction. Similarly, the results also confirm that LMX has a moderating effect between despotic leadership and employee self-efficacy. Therefore, we conclude that the community is understanding of the mechanism of despotic leadership, identify the mechanism to effectively deal with its negative effects, broaden the relevant research on the antecedent variable of self-efficacy, and provide practical enlightenment enterprises to retain and employ people.

Influence of Core Competence on Voice Behavior of Clinical Nurses: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Voice behavior, referred to as a positive guarantee for organizational development, is influenced by several kinds of individual, collective and organizational features. However, the impact of individual competence on voice behavior is unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the status quo of core competence and voice behavior of clinical nurses and explore the impact of core competence on nurses’ voice behavior.

Methods

A multicenter cross-sectional survey. A total of 1717 nurses were recruited from nine tertiary and secondary hospitals between March and June 2019. An online questionnaire, including socio-demographic variables, employee voice behavior scale and competence inventory for registered nurses, was used to investigate prohibitive and promotive voice behavior and core competence of clinical nurses. Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were performed in the data analysis.

Results

The mean score for prohibitive and promotive voice behavior of nurses were 3.46 (SD 0.77) and 3.46 (SD 0.88), respectively. The mean score for core competence was 2.46 (SD 0.77). Critical thinking/research aptitude was the most important predictor for both prohibitive and promotive voice behavior (each p < 0.05), but its influence on promotive voice behavior was greater (p < 0.05). Leadership was another significant predictor for prohibitive voice behavior (p < 0.05). Legal/ethical practice, teaching-coaching, professional development and shift work were other predictors for promotive voice behavior (each p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Clinical nurses experience modest levels of prohibitive and promotive voice behavior and their core competence is moderate. Core competence, especially critical thinking/research aptitude, impacts significantly on voice behavior of clinical nurses. Cultivating nurses’ core competence could positively increase their voice behavior for organizational development.

Relationship Between Psychological Empowerment and the Retention Intention of Kindergarten Teachers: A Chain Intermediary Effect Analysis

Objective: To investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, psychological capital, job involvement, and the retention intention of kindergarten teachers in mainland China and the internal mechanism of action.

Methods: A total of 554 kindergarten teachers were investigated by scales for psychological empowerment, psychological capital, job involvement, and retention intention.

Results: (1) Psychological empowerment was positively correlated with psychological capital and job involvement. Psychological capital was positively correlated with job involvement. Psychological empowerment, psychological capital, and job involvement were significantly and positively correlated with retention intention. (2) Psychological empowerment influences kindergarten teachers' retention intention mainly through three indirect effects: the single intermediary effects of psychological capital and job involvement and the chain intermediary effect of psychological capital → job involvement.

Conclusion: Psychological empowerment can not only indirectly predict the retention intention of kindergarten teachers through the single intermediary effects of psychological capital and job involvement, but also indirectly predict the retention intention of kindergarten teachers through the chain intermediary effect of psychological capital and job involvement.

Explaining the effect of authentic and ethical leadership on psychological empowerment of nurses

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explain the effect of authentic and ethical leadership on the psychological empowerment of nurses.

BACKGROUND

Ethics-related leadership styles can play an important role in improving employee performance by influencing job satisfaction. However, no study has investigated ethics-related leadership and its impact on the psychological empowerment of nurses.

METHOD

The present study is a descriptive correlational study with emphasis on structural equations. A random sample of 384 nurses in public hospitals in Tehran responded to three self-report questionnaires.

RESULTS

The authentic leadership variable explains 74.5% of the variance of the psychological empowerment variable. In addition, the variable of ethical leadership explains 87.7% of the variance of psychological empowerment variable.

CONCLUSION

Ethical and authentic leadership is effective on the nurses' psychological empowerment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Ethical and authentic leadership is necessary for managers to psychologically empower nursing staff. Increasing awareness of capabilities of nurses and how decisions and behaviours affect them, balanced information processing, observance of ethics in the workplace, transparency in communication, information and power sharing, all impact justice in the workplace.

Promoting Innovative Behavior in Employees: The Mechanism of Leader Psychological Capital

The study reported in this paper analyzed the influence of leader psychological capital (PsyCap) on employees’ innovative behavior and the roles of psychological safety and growth need strength (GNS) in this process within the context of positive psychology theory and conservation of resources theory. Three stages of questionnaire surveys were administered to 81 enterprise leaders and their 342 direct subordinates in South China to test our theoretical model. The results showed that leader PsyCap had significant and positive effects on employee innovative behavior, psychological safety had a partially mediating effect, and GNS positively moderated the relationship between psychological safety and innovative behavior. The results revealed the mechanism of PsyCap and external boundary conditions of the influence of leader PsyCap on employee innovative behavior. The study expands the research results of leader PsyCap theory and also provides guidance on how enterprises manage employees’ innovative behavior.

The Impact of Abusive Supervision on Job Insecurity: A Moderated Mediation Model

This paper explores the impact of abusive supervision on job insecurity under the frameworks of the social cognitive theory and the leader-member exchange theory; additionally, it explores the mediating role of leader-member exchange (LMX) and the moderating role of power distance. In this study, 944 employees from two state-owned enterprises located in China were surveyed via questionnaires. Results of the correlation analysis and statistical bootstrapping showed that (i) abusive supervision was significantly and positively related to job insecurity, (ii) LMX played a mediating role in the impact of abusive supervision on job insecurity, and (iii) power distance played a moderating role in the relationship between LMX and job insecurity. Based on the social cognitive theory, this study broadens the perspective of studies regarding job insecurity. It also provides practical suggestions for avoiding abusive supervision and for alleviating employees' insecurities about management.

Leader-Member Exchange, Work Engagement, and Psychological Withdrawal Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment

Perceptions of psychological empowerment play a vital role in the way an individual perceives things at the workplace. In spite of this, there is scant research on the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by analyzing the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between its antecedents (leader-member exchange) and its consequences (work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior). Data were collected from 454 employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors operating in India. Results suggest that employees who have a high-quality relationship with their leader have high psychological empowerment, they are highly engaged at work, and their psychological withdrawal behavior is also low. In addition to this, high levels of psychological empowerment have a positive impact on their engagement toward work, which further leads to a low psychological withdrawal behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

How Is Ethical Leadership Linked to Subordinate Taking Charge? A Moderated Mediation Model of Social Exchange and Power Distance

Extant literature has suggested that leadership styles have a significant impact on subordinate taking charge. However, the effect of ethical leadership on subordinate taking charge is still insufficiently explored. Drawing on social exchange theory, we developed a moderated mediation model in which social exchange was theorized as a mediating mechanism underlining why subordinates feel motivated to take charge with the supervision of ethical leadership. Moreover, power distance was supposed to be a relevant boundary condition to moderate such a relationship. Two hundred thirty-nine independent leader–subordinate dyads in China were used to test the model. Results showed that subordinates’ social exchange mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinate taking charge, and such a relationship was found to be stronger among subordinates who had lower levels of power distance rather than higher levels. Theoretical and practical implications concerning enhancement of subordinate taking charge in organizations where ethical leaderships exist are discussed.

Psychological Safety in Ghana: Empirical Analyses of Antecedents and Consequences

This study examines psychological safety as a mediator in the relationship between Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) and voice behavior. Based on the conservation of resources theory, a moderated mediation framework was used to examine human capital investments, specifically employee education and tenure, as boundary conditions of this relationship. The research hypotheses were tested with a sample of 207 employee-supervisor dyads working in a time-lagged design. The study found that psychological safety is an intermediary mechanism through which LMX affects voice behavior. Employees’ level of education negatively moderates the relationship between LMX and psychological safety. Furthermore, the results suggest that organizational tenure accentuates the relationship between LMX and psychological safety, and strengthens the indirect effect of LMX on voice behavior. The theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed in addition to directions for future research.

Why Am I Willing to Speak Up? The Impact of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Voice Behavior

The sustainability of organizations highlights the significance of inspiring employees, especially their inner lives or spiritual identities, and leaders play a vital role. Consistent with social cognitive theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee voice behavior. Three-wave survey data were collected from 366 full-time employees and their line managers, and a moderated mediation analysis was performed. The results show that career success expectation fully mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee voice behavior. Additionally, felt obligation is found to indirectly strengthen the effect of spiritual leadership on employee voice behavior via career success expectation. In light of the results, practical implications are provided for managers and future researchers to enhance the sustainability of organizations.

Measuring the Psychological Security of Urban Residents: Construction and Validation of a New Scale

With the acceleration of urbanization in developing countries, resources relating to medical care and the environment are becoming increasingly scarce, and the negative spillover effects brought about by scientific and technological progress have also significantly increased the pressure on urban residents. The psychological security of urban residents has recently undergone significant change. This paper introduces psychological security into the area of urban residents’ lives, defines the concept of urban residents’ psychological security, and presents the development and validation of the Urban Residents Psychological Security Scale (URPS). By considering psychological indicators, this paper supplements our knowledge on environmental indicators such as the risk perception of environmental pollution and climate change, and social indicators such as urban belongingness and the risk perception of technology which verifies the negative spillover effects of technological development. Based on a literature search and consideration of grounded theory (25 urban residents’ in-depth interview records), the psychological security of urban residents is divided into three dimensions: self-psychological security, social environmental security, and natural environmental security, consisting of 20 items. In this study, 802 questionnaires were completed by participants. We determined that the URPS scale has good reliability and validity using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, and conclude that the scale can be used as an effective measurement tool for urban residents’ psychological security. The development of this scale has important theoretical and practical significance in helping city managers better understand the residents’ demands and to monitor the implementation effects of policies.

When Do Employees Speak Up Under Job Stressors? Exploring the Potential U-Shaped Relationship Between Hindrance Stressors and Voice Behavior

Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we intend to examine the relationships between voice behaviors and job stressors. Specifically, we propose a non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and prohibitive and promotive voice behaviors. Furthermore, we argue that challenge stressors moderate the non-linear relationship between hindrance stressors and voice behaviors. Based on a sample of 361 employees in China, our results indicate that the relationship between hindrance stressors and prohibitive and promotive voice is U-shaped. The relationships between challenge stressors and prohibitive and promotive voice are linearly positive. Moreover, challenge stressors moderate the relationships between hindrance stressors and voice behaviors; thus, when challenge stressors are high, hindrance stressors are negatively linear related to prohibitive and promotive voice behaviors, and when challenge stressors are low, hindrance stressors are curvilinearly related to prohibitive and promotive voice behaviors. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Authentic Leadership and Proactive Behavior: The Role of Psychological Capital and Compassion at Work

This study, which is based on survey data provided by 445 employees from a Chinese enterprise, examines the impact of authentic leadership on the proactive behavior of subordinates, in particular the mediating effect of subordinate psychological capital and the moderating effect of compassion at work. The results of our structural equation model reveal that: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between authentic leadership and the proactive behavior of subordinates; (2) psychological capital plays a full mediating role between authentic leadership and subordinate proactive behavior; (3) Compassion at work has a moderating effect on the positive relationship between authentic leadership and subordinate psychological capital and proactive behavior.