ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicInclusive Leadership in Multicultural Teams: Innovations, Challenges and SolutionsView all 4 articles
Inclusive climates and employee voice behavior: The roles of voice efficacy and voice channel design
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Employee voice serves as a critical source of organizational competitiveness. Scholars have discussed how to enhance employees' willingness to engage in voice behavior from multiple perspectives. But few studies have investigated the impact of voice channel design practices on employees' voice behavior. Based on sense-making theory, this study examined the effect of the organizational climate of inclusivity on voice behavior, with voice efficacy as a mediator and satisfaction with the design of voice channels as a moderator. Methods: Using data collected from a sample of 281 university employees in eastern China, we analyzed a moderated mediation model. Results: The empirical results showed a significant relationship between an inclusive work climate and voice behavior. Voice efficacy played a partial mediation role in the relationship between an inclusive climate and voice behavior. Satisfaction with the design of voice channels positively moderated the positive effect of a climate for inclusion on voice behavior through voice efficacy. The moderating effect of satisfaction with a formal voice channel was more significant than that of satisfaction with an informal voice channel. Discussion: The findings in this study may inform ways of motivating employees to proactively voice their opinions to promote the development of their organization. By fostering an inclusive organizational climate and designing effective voice mechanisms, organizations can strengthen employees' confidence in their capacity to make meaningful contributions, thereby elucidating how prior voice experiences influence subsequent voice-related decisions.
Keywords: inclusive climates, Voice behavior, Voice efficacy, voice channel design, University employee
Received: 08 Aug 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 SHEN and SHEN. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lidan SHEN, linda_shen@sjtu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.