服务型领导对员工建言行为的影响:领导-成员交换和学习目标取向的作用

Servant Leadership and Employee Voice Behavior: The Role of Leader-member Exchange and Learning Goal Orientation

通过对191名员工及其领导的配对问卷调查,探讨了服务型领导对员工建言行为的作用机制。结果发现:(1)服务型领导对员工建言行为有积极影响;(2)服务型领导通过领导-成员交换的中介效应影响员工建言行为;(3)员工的学习目标取向对领导-成员交换与建言行为之间的关系具有调节效应,即员工的学习目标取向越强,领导-成员交换对建言行为的影响越大;(4)学习目标取向调节了领导-成员交换对服务型领导-建言行为的中介作用。

Voice behaviors have been widely recognized as beneficial to organizations. Accordingly, the determinants of voice behaviors, such as leadership and employee characteristics, have received researchers＇ attention over the past few decades. On the other hand, researchers in leadership area have taken interested in servant leadership. However, few of them have linked it to employee voice behaviors. In light of this, this study aimed to examine the effect of servant leadership on followers＇ voice behaviors. Drawing on the social exchange theory, we examined the mediation role of leader-member exchange （LMX） in this relationship to clarify the mechanism through which servant leaders may promote followers＇ voice behaviors. Moreover, we also examined the moderation role of learning goal orientation to specify the boundary conditions of servant leadership effectiveness. Survey questionnaires were distributed among employees of six companies located in Zhejiang Province. Separate questionnaires were distributed to followers and their supervisors. Followers responded to survey questions on servant leadership, LMX and learning goal orientation. Followers＇ immediate supervisors evaluated their voice behaviors. The final sample consists of 191 employees and 42 supervisors. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to test the mediation and moderation hypotheses. Results showed that servant leadership was positively related to followers＇ voice behaviors, and LMX fully mediated this relationship. In addition, learning goal orientation moderated the relationship between LMX and voice behaviors, such that the relationship was stronger among employees with high level of learning goal orientation. Finally, moderated mediation analyses showed that LMX mediated the relationships between servant leadership and voice behaviors only for employees with high level of learning goal orientation. This study contributes to literatures on both servant leadership and voice behaviors in several ways. First, this study extends our understanding of servant leadership effectiveness by examining its effect on followers＇ voice behaviors. Second, within a social exchange framework, this study examined the mediation role of LMX in the relationship between servant leadership and follower voice behaviors. The finding provides empirical evidence that servant leaders may establish social exchange relationships with their followers, through which they promote followers＇ voice behaviors. Third, this study reinforces Detert and Edmondson＇s （2011） suggestion that researchers should adopt the interactional approach to examine the effects of individual and contextual factors on voice behaviors jointly. Results showed that highly learning oriented employees were more likely to fulfil/their obligation to reciprocate servant leaders by performing voice behaviors.