How Empowering Leadership and a Cooperative Climate Influence Employees’ Voice Behavior and Knowledge Sharing in the Hotel Industry

ABSTRACT

Front-line employees usually have the longest contact with customers and can directly identify and solve their problems immediately. Therefore, employees’ voice behavior and knowledge sharing are important resources for hotel organizational efficiency and improvement. This study examined the effects of empowering leadership and a cooperative climate on employees’ voice behavior and knowledge sharing through their job autonomy, using data from 327 five-star hotel employees in Taiwan. The results suggest that an empowering leadership style and a cooperative climate in hotels could improve employee job autonomy, enabling them to voice their opinion to managers and share knowledge with their colleagues.

KEYWORDS:

• Empowering leadership
• cooperative climate
• job autonomy
• voice behavior
• knowledge sharing