Ethical leadership and its influence on employee voice behavior: role of demographic variables

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice behavior. Study of employee voice behavior is important, because leaders in organizations make numerous decisions based on employees’ work-related inputs which do influence the decision quality and team performance. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected through structured questionnaire from Indian organizations. Data were analysed through statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The findings showed that ethical leadership did impact the employee voice in a positive and significant but moderate manner. The study also found no significant differences in ethical leadership and voice behavior across demographic variables such as gender, age, educational qualification and job level in the Indian context. Research limitations/implications The study is conducted using single cross-sectional research design, and for better causal inferences of the relationship between various variables, future research studies may be conducted with longitudinal research design, multiple data sources and variety of industries with large sample size. Practical implications With erosion of ethical values and corporate scandals, managers need to develop and display ethical leadership as employees emulate their leaders’ ethical behavior because ethical leadership, or its perception, relates positively and significantly to employee voice behavior. Originality/value There is less study to understand ethical leadership and its influence on voice behavior in developing countries, especially in India. Ethical leadership behavior encourages employees to voice their work-related constructive opinions and concerns for improved decision-making and reduced unethical practices. Also, there is scarcity of research that explores the impact of demographic variables and this study is an effort to understand this gap.