Voice behaviour and turnover intentions among employees in Australia: the mediating role of work engagement

Understanding voice behaviour and its role in the workplace is extremely important for Australian managers. Knowledge of voice behaviour is critical to enhancing workers’ performance, as well as retaining employees who come from different cultural backgrounds. This study investigates the differences in voice behaviour between local and immigrant employees and it examines the mechanisms through which promotive and prohibitive voice behaviour may affect employee retention. Results from a field survey of 152 professional employees in Australia found no significant difference in promotive voice between immigrant and local workers. Similarly, immigrant workers were either equally likely or more likely to express prohibitive voice than their local counterparts. Furthermore, promotive voice is found to be positively related to work engagement and negatively related to turnover intentions, while prohibitive voice is not significantly related to work engagement and turnover intentions. In addition, work engagement is negatively associated with turnover intentions. Results also show that work engagement partially mediates the relationship between promotive voice behaviour and turnover intentions. Finally, work engagement does not mediate the relationship between prohibitive voice behaviour and turnover intentions. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.