Who's on the boss's radar? Examination of the antecedent and consequence of leader voice solicitation

Abstract Whilst the existing literature highlights the importance of leader voice solicitation, limited research has explored its antecedent and consequence from a dyadic perspective. To fill this gap, we draw on signalling theory to investigate the effect of subordinate narcissism on leaders' voice solicitation behaviour towards them and its potential impacts on subordinates' work‐related outcomes. We conducted two field studies with subordinate–leader dyadic samples (Ns = 453 and 393) to test our theoretical model. Both studies showed a positive relationship between subordinate narcissism and leader voice solicitation towards the subordinates, which strengthened as the quality of leader–member exchange increased. Moreover, we found that leader voice solicitation was positively related to subordinates' work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour, and negatively related to their intention to leave. We also found evidence supporting the mediation and moderated mediation models. Our research provides theoretical and practical implications for voice solicitation literature.