Servant leadership and voice behavior in higher education

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between servant leadership and voice behavior and the mediating roles of psychological empowerment and psychological safety on that relationship in higher education. The study sample encompasses a total of 793 faculty members along with their deans from randomly selected 10 state universities in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Kayseri, Konya, Bursa, Samsun and Gaziantep during 2012-2013 spring semester. Faculty member’s perceptions of psychological empowerment, psychological safety and voice behavior were measured using the psychological empowerment scale developed by Spreitzer (1995), the psychological safety scale developed by Edmondson (1999) and van Dyne and LePine’s (1998) voice behavior scale respectively. Ehrhart's (2004) servant leadership scale was used to assess faculty dean’s perception of the servant leadership. The results revealed a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and voice behavior and mediating roles of psychological empowerment and safety on that relationship.