Open Access

ARTICLE

Influence of Leaders’ Loneliness on Voice-Taking: The Role of Social SelfEfficacy and Performance Pressure

Guanglei Zhang¹, Silu Chen^2,*, Youqing Fan³, Yue Dong¹

1 School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China
2 School of Economics and Business Administration, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China
3 School of Business, Western Sydney University, Penrith, 2751, Australia

* Corresponding Author: Silu Chen. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2019, 21(1), 13-29. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2019.010730

Abstract

This paper attempts to unlock how and when leaders’ loneliness influences their voice-taking behavior in the workplace by integrating the regulatory loop model of loneliness and the affect theory of social exchange. Through collecting a daily diary study of 87 paired leader-follower samples from two electronics industry companies based in Guangzhou, China, this study finds that (1) leaders’ loneliness has a significant negative impact on social self-efficacy and voice-taking behavior; (2) leaders’ social self-efficacy mediates the relationship between their loneliness and voice-taking behavior; (3) performance pressure moderates the relationship between leaders’ loneliness and voice-taking behavior; and, (4) the indirect effect between leaders’ loneliness and voice-taking behavior (through social self-efficacy) becomes stronger when performance pressure is higher. Therefore, this study provides some practical implications on: (1) how to provide a series of loneliness interventions to address loneliness in all areas of life; and, (2) how to establish an internal culture or atmosphere within the organization to encourage leaders to adopt followers’ suggestions for improvement.

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Citations