When and why voice to higher-up? Declaring the psychological mechanisms of subordinate's voice behavior in the public sector

PLoS One. 2023 Aug 18;18(8):e0285104. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285104. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Based on the leadership-member exchange perspective, this study proposes that subordinates are more likely to express their voice in a leader-supported work environment, and this relationship is stronger when they have close social ties with their supervisor. In the case of subordinates supported by supervisors, public service motivation serves as a psychological mechanism to promote them to express voice behavior. This study also explains the boundary effect of the supervisor-subordinate's guanxi perspective in affecting supervisor support and subordinate's voice behavior. A longitudinal survey of 136 front-line public officers has been conducted to check this theoretical model in China, and their data verified the moderated-mediation model results. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Humans
  • Leadership
  • Motivation*
  • Public Sector*
  • Research Personnel

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the Soft Science Key Program Fund of Shanghai 2022 “Action Planof Technological Innovation”(No.22692199300, recipient: Sirui Sun) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.2232022E-13, recipient: Sirui Sun)and Shanghai Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences Project (No.2020EGL021, recipient: Zonghe Zhang) and The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.