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Purpose The study aims to fill the void of research on voice behavior in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector by examining the associations between ethical leadership, moral self-efficacy, promotive voice, and socially responsible human resource management. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in two waves (T1 and T2) from 102 SMEs, yielding 297 matched responses. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was adopted to verify hypotheses. Findings The data analysis results revealed that ethical leadership could transfer ethical resources to nurture moral self-efficacy. In turn, moral self-efficacy was found to positively link to employees' promotive voice. Furthermore, moral self-efficacy was corroborated as a mediator in linking the connection between ethical leadership and promotive voice. Socially responsible human resource management was identified as a moderator in strengthening the influences of ethical leadership on moral self-efficacy and promotive voice. Originality/value The research provides evidence of how ethical leadership could contribute to activating promotive voice of employees in the SME sector. Additionally, findings on the role of socially responsible human resource management provide evidence for both practitioners in SMEs and scholars about the potential of integrating corporate social responsibility initiatives in human resource management systems.
Nguyen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.