“I am one of the leaders. I must speak up!” The effect of shared leadership on voice behavior

Purpose This study explores how shared leadership (SL) facilitates employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice. Specifically, this study aims to find the relationship between SL and work unit identification (WUI) and professional identification (PI), as well as the relationship between WUI and PI and promotive and prohibitive voice. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a multi-level survey research and collected data from 2,264 full-time employees from 283 teams. The data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling software. Findings The results revealed that SL is positively related to employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice behavior. WUI and PI mediate these relationships such that SL is positively related to WUI and PI, which are positively related to promotive and prohibitive voice behavior. Originality/value This paper contributes to leadership, organizational identification and voice behavior literature by highlighting how SL affects promotive and prohibitive voice behavior via the mediating effect of WUI and PI. It also offers managerial insights to practitioners in mainland China and Asia at large on how to enhance employees’ voice behavior and make use of employees’ collective wisdom.