Why Am I Willing to Speak Up? The Impact of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Voice Behavior
Open accessAbstract
The sustainability of organizations highlights the significance of inspiring employees, especially their inner lives or spiritual identities, and leaders play a vital role. Consistent with social cognitive theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee voice behavior. Three-wave survey data were collected from 366 full-time employees and their line managers, and a moderated mediation analysis was performed. The results show that career success expectation fully mediates the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee voice behavior. Additionally, felt obligation is found to indirectly strengthen the effect of spiritual leadership on employee voice behavior via career success expectation. In light of the results, practical implications are provided for managers and future researchers to enhance the sustainability of organizations.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Prohibitive voice can lead to negative consequences for the speaker, including managerial retaliation, strained workplace relationships, or exclusion from important decision-making processes.
“prohibitive voice can lead to negative consequences for the speaker, including managerial retaliation, strained workplace relationships, or exclusion from important decision-making processes13–16.”
From Leader prohibitive voice shapes employee voice through psychological safety moderated by self-efficacy and generational differences (2025) · cites this paper as [16]
The Introduction (page not provided) says employee voice is risky and may upset workplace relationships, especially with managers who control resources and rewards. The Measures section also says voice may carry high personal costs. Neither passage specifically addresses prohibitive voice or identifies managerial retaliation or exclusion from decision-making as consequences. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.2307/3151312 · Cited by 109,314 · see citing works
Kytle, J., & Bandura, A. (1978) · Contemporary Sociology · doi:10.2307/2065952 · Cited by 25,422 · see citing works
Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452 · Cited by 15,744 · see citing works
Back-translation for cross-cultural research.
Brislin, R. W. (1970) · Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology · doi:10.1177/135910457000100301 · Cited by 14,091 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In accordance with Brislin’s back-translation procedure (Brislin, 1970), the original survey items were translated into Chinese and then back-translated into English.”
MethodStructural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: Algebra and statistics
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.1177/002224378101800313 · Cited by 13,287 · see citing works
Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States.
Tullock, G., & Hirschman, A. O. H. (1970) · The Journal of Finance · doi:10.2307/2325604 · Cited by 11,018 · see citing works
Social Exchange Theory: An Interdisciplinary Review
Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206305279602 · Cited by 10,068 · see citing works
Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice, and Performance.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027 · Cited by 7,715 · see citing works
Reciprocation of perceived organizational support.
Eisenberger, R., Armeli, S., Rexwinkel, B., Lynch, P. D., & Rhoades, L. (2001) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.42 · Cited by 3,106 · see citing works
Toward a theory of spiritual leadership
Fry, L. W. (2003) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001 · Cited by 2,522 · see citing works
On making causal claims: A review and recommendations
Antonakis, J., Bendahan, S., Jacquart, P., & Lalive, R. (2010) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.10.010 · Cited by 2,441 · see citing works
A SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY OF CAREER SUCCESS.
Seibert, S. E., Kraimer, M. L., & Liden, R. C. (2001) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/3069452 · Cited by 2,423 · see citing works
Becker, T. E. (2005) · Organizational Research Methods · doi:10.1177/1094428105278021 · Cited by 2,229 · see citing works
Employee Voice Behavior: Integration and Directions for Future Research
Morrison, E. W. (2011) · Academy of Management Annals · doi:10.5465/19416520.2011.574506 · Cited by 1,803 · see citing works
Morrison, E. W. (2014) · Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091328 · Cited by 1,683 · see citing works
Psychological Antecedents of Promotive and Prohibitive Voice: A Two-Wave Examination
Liang, J., Farh, C. I. C., & Farh, J.-L. (2012) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0176 · Cited by 1,647 · see citing works
Pearce, C. L., & Jr. Sims Henry, P. (2002) · Group Dynamics Theory Research and Practice · doi:10.1037/1089-2699.6.2.172 · Cited by 1,311 · see citing works
Ahearne, M., Mathieu, J. E., & Rapp, A. A. (2005) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.90.5.945 · Cited by 1,265 · see citing works
Predicting voice behavior in work groups.
LePine, J. A., & Van Dyne, L. (1998) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.83.6.853 · Cited by 1,192 · see citing works
Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract
Rousseau, D. M. (2001) · Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology · doi:10.1348/096317901167505 · Cited by 1,146 · see citing works
Walumbwa, F. O., & Schaubroeck, J. (2009) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0015848 · Cited by 1,114 · see citing works
Spiritual values and practices related to leadership effectiveness
Reave, L. (2005) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.07.003 · Cited by 865 · see citing works
Spiritual leadership and army transformation: Theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline
Fry, L. W., Vitucci, S., & Cedillo, M. (2005) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.07.012 · Cited by 807 · see citing works
Chinese Guanxi : An Integrative Review and New Directions for Future Research
Chen, C. C., Chen, X.-P., & Huang, S. (2012) · Management and Organization Review · doi:10.1111/more.12010 · Cited by 669 · see citing works
Out on a Limb: The Role of Context and Impression Management in Selling Gender-Equity Issues
Ashford, S. J., Rothbard, N. P., Piderit, S. K., & Dutton, J. E. (1998) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2393590 · Cited by 632 · see citing works
Fuller, J. B., Marler, L. E., & Hester, K. (2006) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.408 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Liu, W., Zhu, R., & Yang, Y. (2010) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.014 · Cited by 555 · cited 2× · see citing works
“In addition, the self-concept perspective indicates that leaders could build a strong relational self that motivates employees to voice (Liu et al., 2010).”
BackgroundChen, A. S.-Y., & Hou, Y.-H. (2015) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.10.007 · Cited by 531 · see citing works
The role of values in servant leadership
Russell, R. F. (2001) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/01437730110382631 · Cited by 517 · see citing works
Premeaux, S. F., & Bedeian, A. G. (2003) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00390 · Cited by 396 · see citing works
An Integrative Review of Employee Voice: Identifying a Common Conceptualization and Research Agenda
Mowbray, P. K., Wilkinson, A. J., & Tse, H. H. M. (2014) · International Journal of Management Reviews · doi:10.1111/ijmr.12045 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Dyne, L. V., Kamdar, D., & Joireman, J. A. (2008) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.93.6.1195 · Cited by 353 · see citing works
The correlation between stress and economic crisis: a systematic review
Mucci, N., Giorgi, G., Roncaioli, M., Pérez, J. F., & Arcangeli, G. (2016) · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · doi:10.2147/ndt.s98525 · Cited by 341 · see citing works
Spiritual leadership: fulfilling whole‐self needs at work
Fairholm, G. W. (1996) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/01437739610127469 · Cited by 321 · see citing works
Paternalistic leadership and employee voice in China: A dual process model
Zhang, Y., Huai, M., & Xie, Y. (2014) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.01.002 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
The relationship of persistence at a task to expectation of success and achievement related motives.
Feather, N. T. (1961) · Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0045671 · Cited by 272 · see citing works
Control Variable Use and Reporting in Macro and Micro Management Research
Atinc, G. M., Simmering, M. J., & Kroll, M. J. (2011) · Organizational Research Methods · doi:10.1177/1094428110397773 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
Employee voice: An antecedent to organisational engagement?
Ruck, K., Welch, M., & Menara, B. (2017) · Public Relations Review · doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2017.04.008 · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Transformational leadership and employee voice behavior: A Pygmalion mechanism
Duan, J., Li, C., Xu, Y. Q., & Wu, C. (2016) · Journal of Organizational Behavior · doi:10.1002/job.2157 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi: Developing a Three-Dimensional Model and Scale
Chen, Y., Friedman, R., Yu, E., Fang, W., & Lu, X. (2009) · Management and Organization Review · doi:10.1111/j.1740-8784.2009.00153.x · Cited by 216 · see citing works
Morelli, B., Cashman, S. A., Ma, X. C., Garland, J. L., Turgeon, J., Fillmore, L., Bless, D., & Nye, M. (2018) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su10103546 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Control Variables in Leadership Research: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review
Bernerth, J. B., Cole, M. S., Taylor, E. C., & Walker, H. (2017) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206317690586 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Employee voice and work engagement: Macro, meso, and micro-level drivers of convergence?
Kwon, B., Farndale, E., & Park, J. G. (2016) · Human Resource Management Review · doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.04.005 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Qian, J., Song, B., Jin, Z., Wang, B., & Chen, H. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02025 · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Economic stress in the workplace: The impact of fear of the crisis on mental health
Giorgi, G., Arcangeli, G., Mucci, N., & Cupelli, V. (2015) · Work · doi:10.3233/wor-141844 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Hu, Y., Zhu, L., Zhou, M., Li, J., Maguire, P., Sun, H., & Wang, D. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01718 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Dispositional Antecedents of Demonstration and Usefulness of Voice Behavior
Crant, J. M., Kim, T., & Wang, J. (2010) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-010-9197-y · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Patterning employee voice in multinational companies
Lavelle, J., Gunnigle, P., & McDonnell, A. (2010) · Human Relations · doi:10.1177/0018726709348935 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Lin, C., Tsai, Y.-H., Joe, S.-W., & Chiu, C. (2011) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-011-0949-z · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Nurmi, J., Aunola, K., Salmela‐Aro, K., & Lindroos, M. (2003) · Contemporary Educational Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0361-476x(02)00014-0 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Madrid, H. P., Patterson, M. G., & Leiva, P. I. (2015) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0039380 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Keyes, M. W., Hanley‐Maxwell, C., & Capper, C. A. (1999) · Educational Administration Quarterly · doi:10.1177/00131619921968527 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Insiders maintain voice: A psychological safety model of organizational politics
Li, J., Wu, L., Liu, D., Kwan, H. K., & Liu, J. (2013) · Asia Pacific Journal of Management · doi:10.1007/s10490-013-9371-7 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Vos, A. D., Stobbeleir, K. E. M. D., & Meganck, A. (2009) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-009-9107-3 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Chen, C.-Y., Chin-Yuan, Y., & Li, C.-I. (2011) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00834.x · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Spiritual leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: relationship with Confucian values
Hunsaker, W. D. (2016) · Journal of Management Spirituality & Religion · doi:10.1080/14766086.2016.1159974 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
An exploration of the role of subordinate affect in leader evaluations.
Martinko, M. J., Mackey, J. D., Moss, S. E., Harvey, P., McAllister, C. P., & Brees, J. R. (2018) · Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.1037/apl0000302 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
Wang, H., Wu, W., Liu, Y., Hao, S., & Wu, S. (2016) · The International Journal of Human Resource Management · doi:10.1080/09585192.2016.1253030 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Zhu, Y., & Akhtar, S. (2017) · The International Journal of Human Resource Management · doi:10.1080/09585192.2017.1335338 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Ayrancı, E., & Semerciöz, F. (2011) · International Journal of Business and Management · doi:10.5539/ijbm.v6n4p136 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Servant leadership and employee voice behavior: a cross-level investigation in China
Yan, A., & Xiao, Y. (2016) · SpringerPlus · doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3264-4 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
The impact of spirituality on work performance
Javanmard, H. (2012) · Indian Journal of Science and Technology · doi:10.17485/ijst/2012/v5i1/30966 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Workplace Spirituality: Sustainable Work Experience from a Human Factors Perspective
Bella, R. L. F., Quelhas, O. L. G., Ferraz, F. T., et al. (2018) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su10061887 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
THE ROLE OF LEADER’S SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP ON ORGANISATION OUTCOMES
Nguyen, P. V., Tran, K. T., Dao, K. H., & Dinh, H. P. (2018) · Asian Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.21315/aamj2018.23.2.3 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Ethical Leadership and Employee Voice: Examining a Moderated-Mediation Model
LIANG, J. (2014) · Acta Psychologica Sinica · doi:10.3724/sp.j.1041.2014.00252 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Song, X., Wu, W., Hao, S., Lu, X., Zhang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2017) · Chinese Management Studies · doi:10.1108/cms-03-2017-0058 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
Park, J., Lee, K., Lim, J. I., & Sohn, Y. W. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01706 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Supervisor‐Subordinate Guanxi and Employee Voice Behavior: Trust in Supervisor as a Mediator
Yan, P. (2018) · Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal · doi:10.2224/sbp.7098 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Hermans, C. A. M., & Koerts, E. (2013) · Journal of Beliefs and Values · doi:10.1080/13617672.2013.801685 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Why Do Not Employees Voice: A Chinese Culture Perspective
Wenping, C. H. E. N., Duan, J., & Xiaoming, T. I. A. N. (2013) · Advances in Psychological Science · doi:10.3724/sp.j.1042.2013.00905 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Cho, T., & Ryu, K. (2016) · Career Development International · doi:10.1108/cdi-11-2015-0146 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Voicing concerns for greater engagement
Gupta, M., Ravindranath, S., & Kumar, Y. (2018) · Evidence-based HRM a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship · doi:10.1108/ebhrm-12-2016-0034 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Malik, A., Akhtar, M. N., Talat, U., & Chang, K. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11113159 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
The Career Success Expectations Scale: An Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Stephens, G. K., Szajna, B., & Broome, K. M. (1998) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/0013164498058001011 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Gkinopoulos, T., & Hegarty, P. V. (2018) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12244 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Psychological safety serves as mediator between person-group fit and voice behaviour
Cheng, J. W., Lu, K., Cheung, Y. H., et al. (2013) · International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development · doi:10.1504/ijmed.2013.056434 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Yu, Y. (2008) · The Pakistan Development Review · doi:10.30541/v47i4ipp.337-355 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Deng Z. (2016). The impact of spiritual leadership on employee’s job engagement. Econ. Manag. 38 181– 189. 10.19616/j.cnki.bmj.2016.04.017 · DOI
- Meng Y. Yang X. Qiu Y. (2018). From “external constraints” to “intrinsic motivation”: research on mechanism of spiritual leadership influences employees’ voice behaviors. Hum. Resour. Dev. 35 6– 17. 10.16471/j.cnki.11-2822/c.2018.03.000 · DOI
- Qiu Y. Meng Y. Yang X. (2019). How does spiritual leadership inspire innovation?-the study on the Chain mediating effect of leader-member exchange and organizational identification. East China Econ. Manag. 33 44– 50. 10.19629/j.cnki.34-1014/f.180209007 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Tian, X., Chae, H., Song, D., & Zhang, Y. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-17500-5 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“Despite its potential to enhance organizational safety and effectiveness, prohibitive voice can lead to negative consequences for the speaker, including managerial retaliation, strained workplace relationships, or exclusion from important decision-making processes 13–16 .”
- Authors
- Yang, X., Meng, Y., Qiu, Y., & Feng, Y.
- Affiliations
- Capital University of Economics and Business (CN)
- Beijing Technology and Business University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Meng, Yuchen
- Qiu, Yong
- ORCID
- Qiu, Yong
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2019-12-05
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 2718-2718
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6906189
- OpenAlex
- W2992592066
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 77
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 3.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (9184020)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Workplace Spirituality and Leadership
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
- Keywords
- spiritual leadership, employee voice behavior, felt obligation, spiritual identity, social cognitive theory, moderated mediation, organizational sustainability
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
