Leader effectiveness – the missing link in the relationship between employee voice and engagement

Purpose— Voice and engagement studies have drawn scholars’ attention to examine how they are related. However, it appears the mechanisms that connect these two constructs are understudied. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine leader effectiveness as the mechanism through which employee voice translates into engagement. Design/methodology/approach— A cross-sectional data were collected from 106 employees in the 24 Rural and Communities Banks (RCBs) that qualified for the seventeenth edition of the Ghana Club 100 awards. A covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) with maximum likelihood (ML) estimation was used with a 95% confidence interval (CI) bootstrapping analysis to examine our hypotheses. Findings— The result shows that leader effectiveness fully mediated the relationship between employee voice and engagement. This is supported by our estimated fully mediated structural model which indicates a good fit to the data χ2(52) = 61.24, p = 0.18, AIC = 113.24. The 95% CI bootstrapping analysis further lends support to the fully mediated structural model. Practical implications— Since defensive silence is detrimental to the wellbeing of both employees and the firm, this paper suggests that RCB managers and HR professionals should exhibit effective leadership behaviours that inspires employees to channel their creative ideas and misgivings by speaking up and speaking out in order to enhance and sustain their level of engagement. Originality/value— The findings of this paper suggest leader effectiveness as the missing link between voice and engagement relationship. Thus, contrary to previous research that theorises a direct relationship between voice and engagement, this paper provides leader effectiveness as a novel mechanism that explains how employees’ voice behaviour is transmitted into their levels of engagement