Servant Leadership and Voice Behavior: Self-efficacy as a Mediator

In a sample of 73.56% response rate of 662 employees in 21 work units among 9 industries, across multiple organizations, by using questionnaire with convenience sampling and stratified sampling to get data collection, the relationship among servant leadership, voice behavior and self-efficacy were examined. Using SPSS 22.0 to conduct a statistical test, results support for our hypothesized models that (1) servant leadership will have positive impact on voice behavior (2) self-efficacy will mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and moral efficacy. These finding highlight the important role in explain why servant leadership can result in voice behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings, as well as limitation and suggestions for future avenues are provided. Introduction Extensive researches pay more attention to the antecedents of voice (Morrison, 2014) . Even though a great number of scholars have mentioned that leadership behavior and management style have significant effects on employees’ voices (e.g., Edmondson 2003; Morrison and Phelps 1999), only a few have empirically investigated this issue. Recent study revealed the positive effects of transformational leadership on employee voice (Liu et al., 2010) ; and Walumbwa and Schaubroeck (2009) found a positive relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice. While these studies provide valuable evidence for the role of leadership, research gaps also remain due to lack of considering servant leadership theory. Recent study demonstrate that servant leadership is proved to be positively related to organizational citizenship behavior (Newman, 2015). Compared with other leadership theories, servant leadership might be a more substantial theory for explaining employee voice behaviors. As voice would be positive or prohibitive, which need employees’ confidence to speak up to leader, thus we suggest individual’s self-efficacy can bridge the relationship between servant leadership and voice behavior. Theoretical Hypothesis Voice refers to the expression of constructive opinions, suggestions, or concerns about work-related issues (Le Pine &Van Dyne, 1998). Voice may enhance employees’ feelings of control, which has been shown to increase satisfaction and motivation and decrease stress (Greenberger & Strasser, 2007). Voice may lead to more positive attitudes due to the benefits associated with being able to express one’s views and concerns (Morrison & Milliken, 2000). And Greenleaf proposed that servant leadership ‘‘begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead’’ (Greenleaf, 1970/1991 p. 7). Contrasting servant leadership with other leadership frameworks in vogue at the time, Greenleaf emphasized motivation as the differentiating factor: The servant leader chooses to lead as an outcome of the motivation to serve. He wrote: ‘‘The servant leader. is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possession The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant – first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served’’ (Greenleaf, 1970/1991, p. 7). Drawing on social exchange theory, Servant leadership behavior creates a pervasive social context that positively affects employees’ attitudes and behavior. Servant leadership can make International Conference on Education Reform and Management Science (ERMS 2018) Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 177