Environmentally-Specific Transformational Leadership and Environmental Voice: A Five-Wave Study of Reciprocal Within-Person Relations

Although employees typically direct environmental voice (i.e., making suggestions related to environmental sustainability) toward leaders, knowledge about leadership as a potential predictor and outcome of employee environmental voice remains limited. Drawing from action regulation theory, we develop and test a conceptual model of reciprocal relations between environmentally-specific transformational leadership and environmental voice over time. Monthly data were collected at five measurement points from n = 2,788 employees, who rated their environmental voice behavior and their direct supervisor’s environmentally-specific transformational leadership behavior. Results of a random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed that higher levels of environmentally-specific transformational leadership predicted higher levels of environmental voice, and vice versa. Contrary to expectations, employees’ position in the organizational hierarchy did not moderate these within-person relations; the effect of environmentally-specific transformational leadership on environmental voice was not, as hypothesized, stronger for employees in lower-level positions, nor was the effect of environmental voice on environmentally-specific transformational leadership stronger for those in higher positions. These findings provide insights into the dynamic, reciprocal relations between leadership and environmental voice and may inform the development of leadership interventions and training programs to advance environmental sustainability in organizations.