The double-edged sword effect of daily leader secure-base support on employee voice: experience sampling evidence from China

Leader secure-base support (LSBS) is generally expected to be associated with wide-ranging benefits due to its dual emphasis on care and developmental challenge. By adopting a within-person approach to capture daily fluctuations in LSBS, we caution its double-edged effects in eliciting employee voice. Drawing on cognitive evaluation theory, the current research develops an integrative theoretical model to uncover whether, how, and when daily LSBS influences employees’ daily promotive and prohibitive voice. A multilevel, multiphase, and multisource experience sampling method spanning 10 consecutive workdays was conducted to test our model. Results indicate that daily LSBS simultaneously enhances employees’ challenging appraisal and legitimate power perception. Challenging appraisal facilitates both daily promotive and prohibitive voice, whereas legitimate power perception stimulates daily promotive voice yet constrains daily prohibitive voice. Besides, power distance orientation functions as a crucial between-person contingency to attenuate the positive within-person relationship between daily LSBS and challenging appraisal, as well as the mediating effects of challenging appraisal. By contrast, power distance orientation magnifies the positive relationship between daily LSBS and legitimate power perception, along with the mediating effects of legitimate power perception. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and suggest directions for future research.