The Effect of Empowering Leadership on Follower’s Promotive Voice Behavior: Mediating Effect of Psychological Safety and Moderated Mediating Effect of Coworker’s Acquiescent Silence

Voice behaviors have been received considerable interests both from scholars and practitioners due to its expected benefit to promote continuing organizational innovation. However, few studies have been conducted concurrently considered all factors influencing voice behavior - supervisors, colleagues, and self - to put in to the research model. Thus, this study suggested that follower’s voice behaviors are influenced by leaders’ empowering leadership, individual’s psychological safety, and coworkers’ acquiescent. silence. Specifically, a leader’s empowering leadership is expected to promote subordinates’ psychological safety, subsequently leads to encourage their voice behaviors. Coworkers’ acquiescent silence is expected to negatively moderate the relationship between empowering leadership on subordinates’ promotive voice behaviors which is mediated by subordinates’ psychological safety. To test the research problem, we collected survey data from 171 leader-subordinate pairs and conducted regression analysis. The result supported our research hypotheses, showing the mediation effect of psychological safety and moderated mediation effect of acquiescent silence. From this study, we tried to expand the scope of concepts relating to voice literatures, by examining the process and conditions inducing positive and constructive voice behaviors of organizational member. Also, based on the theoretical model, we suggested practical implications to promote constructive employee voice behaviors.