Factors influencing employee voice behavior : a predictive model

Abstract

Organizations need employees’ participation through voice behavior in terms of sharing information, opinions, and generating valuable ideas in their workplaces. This constructive voice behavior increases organizational effectiveness in the workplace. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a predictive model on employee voice behavior from the antecedents of voice (empowering leadership, organizational learning capability, relationship with the supervisor, job satisfaction, organizational trust, organizational identification, and communication) on selected private higher learning educational institutions (PHLEI) in the Philippines. A cross sectional design was used and the participants were chosen using convenience sampling method. The data was collected from 7 PHLEI in Cavite region. Out of 650 distributed questionnaires, only 440 were returned. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and path analysis were used to answer the research questions of the study. Using Pearson’s correlation, this study found out that there is a strong positive correlation between the independent variables (empowering leadership, organizational learning capability, relationship with the supervisor, job satisfaction, organizational trust, organizational identification, and communication) and the dependent variable (voice behavior) at p = 0.01. Using descriptive statistics, the study revealed that gender has no significant difference on all the variables. On the contrary, there are significant differences on job satisfaction among married and unmarried participants indicating that married persons are more satisfied in their jobs. In addition, age and educational level have shown significant differences on all independent variables but not on voice behavior. Similarly, different layers of managers have understood voice behavior differently as their managerial hierarchy grows. Furthermore, there are significant differences on all the variables in relation to years of service. This study found out that all the independent variables explained 33% of the variance in the model while empowering leadership came out as the best predictive variable of the model. Hence, this study has achieved its purpose in developing a predictive model on employees’ voice behavior for the PHLEI in the Philippines. The model is expected to initiate employees’ participation through sharing of constructive information, ideas, suggestions, opinions, skills, and experiences for the organizational growth. Practical implications for practitioners and recommendations for further future researches are provided in the field of the study.