How does uncertainty avoidance affect employee voice behavior through the dual-path ways of work engagement and psychological security?

Abstract

Individual traits may have an important impact on employee voice behavior. Considering the different purposes and potential risk exposure of promotive/prohibitive voice, this study constructs a two-path model of the effect of uncertainty avoidance on employee promotive/prohibitive voice based on the Uncertainty Management Theory, examining the mediating roles of work engagement and psychological security, as well as the moderating role of empowering leadership. Through a survey of 417 Chinese employees, the results show that (1) Uncertainty avoidance positively affects promotive voice through work engagement; (2) Uncertainty avoidance negatively affects prohibitive voice through psychological security; (3) Empowering leadership moderates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and promotive voice, and high-level empowering leadership significantly enhances the indirect effect of work engagement and strengthens the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and promotive voice; (4) Empowering leadership fails to moderate the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and psychological security. The findings have practical implications for clarifying the mechanisms of uncertainty avoidance on employee voice behavior and promoting employee voice behavior in multiple ways.