You Raise Me Up: Employee Voice Elevates Leader Managerial Self-Efficacy Through Leader Self-Expansion

Abstract

Voice behavior has been extensively explored, but its effect on leaders, particularly at the team level, has been overlooked. Enlightened by self-expansion theory and followership research, we theorize that employee voice can boost leaders’ managerial self-efficacy (team level) via leader self-expansion. We tested our hypotheses using a time-lagged survey with 67 teams (298 employees and 67 supervisors). Results from multilevel structural equation modeling confirmed our hypotheses, showing employee voice has a positive relationship with leaders’ self-expansion, which in turn affects leaders’ managerial self-efficacy at the team level. The study offers novel insights into employee voice consequences and followership research.