When Dual Team Leaders Model Voice Behavior: Boundary Effects of Involvement, Mixed Messages, and Stifling Hierarchy on Team Safety, Voice Climate, and Performance

Key Take-Aways
What leaders can do to help team members feel safe enough to create a climate of voice in a dual-leader

1. The manager plays a key role in the team: voice-modeling behavior from the manager has a stronger association than the partner’s behavior. Need for leadership training to help managers demonstrate, through their own “voice” leadership behaviors, that there is an environment of psychological safety that enables voice for the audit
   team.
2. Managers’ influence is accentuated when they are more involved and avoid mixed messaging (by not engaging in counterproductive RAQ acts).
3. Partner’s voice role modeling may help in absence of the manager, but otherwise has a stifling effect (less actual team voice). More manager involvement cannot compensate for this.

The manager is the “team climate engineer” for the audit team.