How empowering leadership promotes millennial employees’ voice behavior

Based on social exchange theory, the aim in this paper was to provide theoretical guidance and empirical evidence on how to optimize a motivational voice mechanism for millennial employees. Data from 141 millennial employees in China offer considerable support for our hypothesized moderated mediation model. Results revealed that (a) empowering leadership is positively related to millennial employees’ voice; (b) millennial employees’ intrinsic motivation partly mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and the employees’ voice; (c) autonomous job design moderates the direct relationship between empowering leadership and millennial employees’ intrinsic motivation; and (d) autonomous job design moderates the indirect relationship between empowering leadership and employee voice behavior via the employees’ intrinsic motivation, such that the relationship is stronger when job design is highly autonomous rather than less autonomous. Our findings not only elucidate the motivating factors and intrinsic mechanisms of millennials’ voice, but also hold the means to motivate millennials in practical contexts.