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

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study targets Chinese workplace employees and aims to explore the relationship between voicers’ high-quality voice and observing employees’ helping behavior within the Chinese organizational context, while considering the mediator of perceived benefits of resource access, along with the moderating role of goal competitiveness. This study employed a two-wave time-lagged survey design 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. The findings revealed that voicers’ high-quality voice was positively related to observing employees’ helping behavior, and perceived benefits of resource access mediated this relationship (estimate = 0.23, SE = 0.07, 95% CI = [0.10, 0.39]). Furthermore, goal competitiveness weakened the positive relationship between voicers’ high-quality voice and observing employees’ perceived benefits of resource access as well as the positive indirect effects of voicers’ high-quality voice on observing employees’ helping behavior via perceived benefits of resource access (estimate = -0.02, SE = 0.01, 95% CI [-0.06, -0.001]). 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. Using Chinese employee samples, our research contributes to the emerging literature on employee voice quality by revealing the positive relationship between high-quality voice and observing employees’ helping behavior through perceived benefits of resource access and exploring the boundary condition (i.e., goal competitiveness) of this relationship. Our research is among the first to unpack how high-quality voice relates to observing employees’ helping behavior based on Chinese workplace data, enriching the literature on voice quality.