Transformational Leadership and Voice: When Does Felt Obligation to the Leader Matter?

Jinyun Duan; Xiao Hua (Frank) Wang; Onne Janssen; Jiing Lih Farh

doi:10.1007/s10869-021-09758-z

Transformational Leadership and Voice: When Does Felt Obligation to the Leader Matter?

Jinyun Duan, Xiao Hua (Frank) Wang^*, Onne Janssen, Jiing Lih Farh

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal Article › peer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	543-555
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of Business and Psychology
Volume	37
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-021-09758-z
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

Obligation
Power distance
Transformational leadership
Voice

Access to Document

10.1007/s10869-021-09758-z

Cite this

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title = "Transformational Leadership and Voice: When Does Felt Obligation to the Leader Matter?",

abstract = "Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees{\textquoteright} behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers{\textquoteright} felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers{\textquoteright} power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.",

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AU - Duan, Jinyun

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AU - Farh, Jiing Lih

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

AB - Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

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KW - Transformational leadership

KW - Voice

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Transformational Leadership and Voice: When Does Felt Obligation to the Leader Matter?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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