Title: Examining the relationship of paternalistic leadership, extent of centralisation and employee's voice behaviour

Authors: Bushra Mumtaz; Aisha Azhar; Muhammad Ibrahim Abdullah; Afshan Azam Khan

Addresses: Faculty of Management Studies, University of Central Punjab, Pakistan ' School of Governance and Society, University of Management and Technology, Pakistan ' Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Pakistan ' College of Business Administration, AlYamamah University Riyadh, KSA

Abstract: Among many leadership approaches in Asia, literatures failed to gauge applicability of paternalistic leadership in Pakistani organisations. This research stresses on discussing how voice varies across the triad model of paternalistic leadership styles, power distance orientation, their interactions, and extent of centralisation. Data was collected from a sample of 324 employees, which includes 146 employees from public and 178 employees from private universities and banks. The proposed hypotheses were tested by using confirmatory factor analysis followed by multiple regression analysis. The findings showed that employees' voice behaviour was negatively associated with authoritarian paternalism; positively associated with benevolent and moral paternalism; and negatively associated with extent of centralisation. Also, the positive relationship of benevolent paternalism and employees' voice behaviour was stronger when employees experience high levels of power distance, thereby accepting the proposed hypotheses. However, contrary to the propositions, no significant results were obtained regarding power distance moderating negative authoritarian and positive moral paternalist link with voice behaviour. Implications of findings and future research prospects are discussed.

Keywords: paternalism; paternalistic leadership; authoritative leadership; authoritarian paternalism; benevolent leadership; benevolent paternalism; moral leadership; power distance; extent of centralisation; employee voice behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2023.130243

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2023 Vol.14 No.1, pp.101 - 118

Received: 27 Jul 2021
Accepted: 06 Aug 2022
Published online: 10 Apr 2023 *