Abstract:

Employee voice is important in terms of identifying problems in the organization and producing solutions to them. The characteristics of the leader and the trust of the followers in the leader are the determining factors for the emergence of this behavior. In this context, the purpose of the study is to examine the mediating role of trust in the leader in the effect of authentic leadership on employee voice. Data was collected from 373 employees working in private firms in Tekirdağ, Turkey. The relationships between variables are based on the reciprocity norm of social exchange theory. According to the results of the study, authentic leadership positively affects both employee voice and trust in the leader. Trust in the leader reflects positively on employee voice. In addition, trust in the leader has a mediating role in the relationship between authentic leadership and employee voice. These results prove that authentic leadership is an important determinant in promoting employee voice. In addition, it was emphasized that employees should trust their leaders in order to express problems within the organization.

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