The effect of high-quality voice on observing employees’ helping behavior: A moderated mediation model

Background: Grounding on social information processing theory and theory of cooperation and competitiveness, this study aims to explore the impact of voicers’ high-quality voice on observing employees’ helping behavior while considering the mediator of perceptions of benefit to resources, along with the moderating role of goal competitiveness. Method: This study employed a two-wave study to examine the theoretical model. A total of 226 employees in China were used to test our hypotheses by adopting hierarchical multiple regression method. SPSS and MPLUS were used to analyze data. Results: The findings revealed that voicer’s high-quality voice positively predicted observing employees’ helping behavior, and perceptions of benefit to resources mediated this relationship. Furthermore, goal competitiveness weakened the positive relationship between voicers’ high-quality voice and observing employees’ perceptions of benefit to resources as well as the positive indirect effects of voicers’ high-quality voice on observing employees’ helping behavior via perceptions of benefit to resources. Conclusion: Voice quality is vital for organizational effectiveness but related research is limited. Hence, scholars encourage future research to shift attention from voice frequency to voice quality. Our research contributes to the emerging literature on employee voice quality by revealing the positive effect of high-quality voice on observing employees’ helping behavior through perceptions of benefit to resources and exploring the boundary condition (i.e., goal competitiveness) of this relationship. Our research is among the first to explore the influence of high-quality voice in observing employees’ helping behavior, enriching the literature on voice quality.