How does moral identity promote employee voice behavior? The roles of work engagement and leader secure-base support

ABSTRACT

This study seeks exploration of how employees’ moral identity is related to voice behavior (i.e., the expression of constructive suggestions or ideas for improving work-related issues) in the current organizational dynamics. By integrating the self-consistency theory with a situational strength perspective, a moderated mediation model was constructed to examine connections among moral identity, leader secure-base support (LSBS), work engagement, and voice behavior. Surveys were collected at 2 time points, 1 month apart, from 206 full-time employees in various organizations and industries in Taiwan. Supporting results indicated that employees’ moral identity was positively related to voice behavior. The mediating impact of work engagement as a motivational mechanism between moral identity and voice behavior was observed. Relative to when LSBS was low, the effect of moral identity on work engagement and the indirect effect of moral identity on voice behavior through work engagement were more substantial when LSBS was high. Academic and managerial implications were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral identity
• leader secure-base support
• work engagement
• voice behavior

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Na-Ting Liu, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.