This chapter includes the final conclusion and discussion overall implications of the study based on the results obtained. In addition, limitations in data analysis and research design are discussed. Lastly, suggestions are provided for future studies.
Conclusions
This study was designed to examine the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior with Psychological Safety as the mediating effect and Gender as the moderating effect. The study followed a quantitative approach in which 200 Salvadoran employees working in private organizations in the areas of finance, customer service, or/and sales were surveyed by using an online-based questionnaire. Based on the results gathered from the analyses run through SPSS 23.0 the researcher was capable to conclude the following:
Regarding the first hypothesis, the results of this study showed that Leader-Member Exchange is positively related to Employee Voice Behavior, implying that employees that have high quality relationships with their leaders are more prompt to speak up and raise their voices.
Hypothesis 2 proposed that Psychological Safety can mediate the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior. However, results showed that Psychological Safety only partially mediates the relationship. Psychological Safety only accounts for some of the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior.
Hypothesis 3 proposed that Gender can moderate the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior such that this relationship is stronger when employees are male than when they are female. However, for this study, this hypothesis was not supported, Gender did not prove to be a significant moderator between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior.
The final findings of this study show that Leader-Member Exchange would lead to Employee Voice Behavior, that Psychological Safety partially mediates the relationship, and that Gender does not moderates it. Such findings provide beneficial practical implications for Human Resource professionals in private organization in El Salvador and countries with similar cultures.
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Research Limitations
This study faced several limitations that are worthy of mentioning so that in the future researchers can take them into consideration.
The first limitation is in regards to the size of the sample population. As previously mentioned, due to limited resources and a low response rate from participants, this study was only able to collect 200 valid responses. A small sample population might present the issue of not being a good representation of the entire population, a generalizability issue.
The second limitation was the design of the study. This study followed a cross-sectional design, meaning that the data gathered was only taken from a single point of time. This presents a limitation because it makes the study susceptible to biases such as social acceptability bias and responder bias. In addition, it is difficult to determine causality and it is impossible to measure incidence.
The third limitation was the targeted population, only employees from a limited number of organizations working in the areas of finance, customer service, and sales are not enough to generalize all the private sector in El Salvador. Different organizations and its remaining work areas have different conditions, follow different systems and programs, and have different tasks that might influence employees’ dynamics with their leaders.
Lastly, the fourth limitation was that the input provided by participants was self-reported.
Self-reported information might be susceptible to elaborated responses that might lack honesty.
Some of the items included in the survey discussed subjects in which participants had to disclose private and delicate information, which could cause them to become hesitant to answer honestly.
Implications of the Study
After having analyzed and examined the results from the relationship among the variables:
Leader-Member Exchange, Employee Voice Behavior, Psychological Safety, and Gender; several theoretical and practical implications can be discussed deriving from this study.
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Regarding the theoretical implication, the findings of this study contribute to the already existing literature on Leader-Member Exchange, Employee Voice Behavior, Psychological Safety, and Gender, respectively. It also contributes to research providing empirical support about the influence of Leader-Member Exchange, Psychological Safety, and Gender on Employee Voice Behavior. In addition, as mentioned earlier, it contributes to the Latin America literature, especially El Salvador’s literature on the study of the prior mentioned variables. The results of this study might serve as the base for further studies examining Employee Voice Behavior in the private sector taking as sample developing countries.
For the practical implication, the findings of the study showed that Leader-Member Exchange is positively related to Employee Voice Behavior. Therefore, implying the importance of top management to develop strong, high-quality relationships with employees. HR professionals and top management should strive to create, develop, and carry out programs, workshops, and policies that will encourage communication between leaders and employees so that work-behaviors such as Employee Voice Behavior can be encouraged and nourished.
Secondly, this study showed that Psychological Safety partially explains the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior. Although not being the main cause for Employee Voice Behavior to occur, the study encourages top management to encourage all leaders to create an environment with their employees in which employees will feel psychologically safe which will improve the likelihood of them raising their voices and sharing their ideas, constructive comments and criticism allowing for the organization to benefit from such beneficial behaviors.
Organizations should take into consideration the importance of building and nourishing high-quality leader-member relationships, relationships based on respect, communication, trust, loyalty, and honesty. Employees involved in high-quality leader-member relationships bring added value to organizations, as proven by this study, they are more willing to raise their voices and allow those organizations to benefit from constructive comments, criticisms, innovative ideas, etc. In addition, the importance of making employees feel psychologically safe which is said to be a reason of many beneficial work-related behaviors such as Employee Voice Behavior.
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Suggestions and Recommendations
After reviewing the findings from this study the following recommendations and suggestions are made:
First, it is suggested to target not only large private organizations, but to broaden the study and include small and medium size organizations to examine and compare whether there is a difference in results based on the size of the organization. Also, it is recommended to carry a cross-cultural study, study other Latin American countries’ populations to examine the variations on employee behavior based on their cultural context.
Secondly, consider carrying out the study using a longitudinal approach. A longitudinal study allows the research to have a clearer and more accurate explanation of the causality of specific variables. Being able to have results from different points in time increases effectiveness, it allows the researcher to determine variable patterns over time.
Thirdly, it is advised to study different variables that act as mediators that might have stronger influence in the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior.
This will allow researcher in the future to identify which variables have strong influence in the relationship between Leader-Member Exchange and Employee Voice Behavior, and which variables have a direct effect on Employee Voice Behavior.
Lastly, as mentioned before, it is highly recommended to collect a larger sample population to avoid problems of generalizability.
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