How does employee voice influence empowering leadership? The effects of voice tactics and gender

Abstract

Although there is considerable evidence that empowering leadership is beneficial to individuals, teams, and organizations, a few studies have examined the antecedents of empowering leadership behaviour itself. To address this gap, this research examines the predictors of empowering leadership in terms of subordinate behaviours and traits. Based on signalling theory and role‐based followership theory, we predict that employee voice expressed in rational appeals is more likely to enhance managerial attributions of employee proactivity compared to emotional appeals, which leads to increased empowering leadership. Furthermore, we propose that this is especially true when the subordinate is female rather than male. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a scenario‐based experiment across two distinct cultural settings, Japan and the United Kingdom. The results from both countries support all hypotheses; our findings provide not only theoretical implications for research on empowering leadership, voice behaviour, and gender, but also several practical implications for subordinates and supervisors.