The Mediating Role of Employee Work Engagement in the Relationship between Leadership Psychological Skills and Employee Voice Behavior

Intensified competitiveness in global markets has directed most organizations toward retaining their employees as their most important intangible assets, because losing such individuals can impose huge costs to them. Therefore, managers do their best to keep employee satisfaction. For this purpose, they need to understand the needs of their employees and the organization’s conditions. In such a situation, employees’ positive voice behavior is of utmost importance for managers as it helps enhance their awareness. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors inducing this behavior. Given that workplace comfort might shape employee voice behavior (EVB) and managers with leadership psychological skills (LPSs) can create a state of calmness for these individuals, as highlighted in previous research, the present study reflected on the relationship between the effects of LPSs on EVB. As employee work engagement (EWE) can be also influenced by LPSs and consequently shape EVB, the mediating role of this variable in the relationship between LPSs and EVB was further discussed. To meet the research goals, a total number of 310 employees working in Iranian food industry companies were employed as the study sample. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and the LISREL software were used for data analysis purposes. The study results ultimately demonstrated that LPSs could affect EVB when mediated by EWE.