Investigating the Relationship Between Relational Leadership and Employees’ Promotive Voice Behavior

While several studies have highlighted the importance of leadership in fostering an environment where employees feel comfortable speaking up, “Relational Leadership” (RL) has received little attention when it comes to workers’ promotive voice behavior (PVB). The PVB is extra-role behavior and refers to the expressing of change-oriented ideas, opinions, and suggestions to advocate the improvement at workplace. The study of such variables & relationships is much needed in today’s recession era. Grounded on the Casual Attribution Theory, the said study aims to investigate the relationship between RL & employees’ PVB, directly as well as indirectly through psychological empowerment (PE). The study classifies RL as inclusive, empowering, caring, visionary, and ethical whereas PVB is classified as supportive and constructive voice behavior. The data were gathered from two different sources i.e., workers and supervisors, and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) through Mplus 7. It is revealed that RL positively influences employees’ PVB. Additionally, PE of the employees mediates the relationship between RL and PVB. These results have important implications for the field of leadership and psychology.