A Study On Group Voice Climate In Chinese Enterprises

The proposal of group voice climate constitutes a logical continuation of voice research and a refinement and extension of organizational climate studies. Most previous researches has been based on Western enterprises; research of group voice climate remains at the initial stage. This research was based on management practices and the reality of enterprises in China—a systematic empirical study on group voice climate was conducted by reviewing related research on group voice climate; existent problems were indicated, group voice climate structures in line with China’s enterprise situation were developed, measurement tools were created, the effect of group voice climate on members’ cross-level voice behavior was investigated, and the impact of paternalistic leadership on group voice climate at the group level was explored. Specifically, this article consists of five parts, as detailed below.Part1, Introduction, inclusive of the literature review and question proposal. Firstly, the thesis reviews behaviors pertaining to offering suggestions and presents trends regarding group-level research. Then, the aspect of climate is summarized and specific trends in climate research are indicated. Subsequently, this study reviews the concept, structure, and measurement of group voice climate, as well as related empirical studies. In the literature review, this study concludes that the current group voice climate structure, obtained from the West, is not suitable for the situation of Chinese enterprise. The mechanism for voice behavior among members—namely, the problem of ―how‖ to influence—remains yet to be studied and the impact of leadership on the formation of group voice climate does not reflect the unique leadership style of China. Based on this, this study designed a research plan and initiated a series of empirical studies.Part 2, Study of group voice climate structure in Chinese enterprises, two sub-studies is included. In Sub-study 1, data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 4 team leaders and 16 team members. Based on grounded theory analysis, the data were encoded in three levels and the structural dimensions of group voice climate were obtained, including in regard to the climate of voice fluency, climate of leader acceptance, climate of team brainstorming, and climate of smooth interpersonal relationships. Sub-study 2 was based on the results of Sub-study 1, through expert recommendations and group discussion of target respondent, and established a four-dimensional scale for group voice climate. Through EFA, CFA, it showed that thegroup voice climatescale had good reliability and validity. The formal scale included twenty items was suitable formeasuring group voice climate in Chinese enterprises.Part 3, Study of group voice climate effectiveness.The study firstly investigated the impact of group voice climate and its four sub-dimensions on team members’ voice behavior. Based on social cognitive theory, the study also presented and tested the members’ voice efficacy as a mediator between the relationship. The self-report questionnaires of 355 employees from 52 work groups were collected, and the statistic results showed that the common method bias had little impact on the main effects and mediation modles. Hierarchical Linear Models(HLM) was applied to examine the mediation effect. The results showed that group voice climate had a significant positive predictive effect on group voice behavior and voice efficacy. In addition, group voice climate had an indirect positive effect on member voice behavior, in which member voice efficacy played a cross-level mediating role.Part 4, Study of paternalistic leadership on group voice climate.The paternalistic leadership style is the most characteristic leadership style in China. Its three dimensions—moral leadership, benevolent leadership, and authoritative leadership—all reflect a deep Chinese cultural heritage. This study built a moderated-mediate model at the group level to study the mediatingmechanism and boundary conditions of paternalistic leadership on group voice climate. Based on the social exchange theory, the study proposes that Leader-Member Exchange Mean(LMX Mean) plays amediating role in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and group voice climate; moreover, it was assumed that task interdependency could positively regulate the relationship between LMX Mean and group voice climate. Data were collected from 347 employees from 49 work groups. The results showed that LMX Mean plays a partially mediating role in regard to the positive effect of moral leadership and benevolent leadership on group voice climate while LMX Mean plays a fully intermediating role in regard to the negative effect of authoritative leadership on group voice climate. Task interdependence did not moderate the relationship between LMX Mean and group voice climate.Part 5, General discussion and conclusion.Through further discussion on group voice climate structure, effectiveness, and the impact of the paternalistic leadership on it, it was shown that the results of this research were reliable and consistent with the actual situation in China. This study is innovative bothin theory and method. Regarding theory, this study created a four-dimensional model of group voice climate for Chinese enterprises, furtherclarified the mechanism of group voice climate on individual voice behavior, and explored the antecedentsof group voice climate with regard to management practices in China. Regarding method, this study introduced qualitative research based on ground theory and created a four-dimensional group voice climatescale that had good reliability and validity. Future studies can discuss how to build and enhance intervention research into group voice climate and find solutions in order to apply research results to management practices through the application of the scale to various enterprises.