Abstract: Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study extended extant research by developing a moderated mediation model linking leader forgiveness to employee voice behavior that included voice efficacy as a mediator and perception of perceived organizational support (POS) as a moderator. We examined the hypotheses proposed with matched field data collected from 58 department supervisors and 290 employees. The results of the hierarchical linear modeling revealed that leader forgiveness was positively associated with employee voice behavior. Furthermore, voice efficacy mediated the positive relation of leader forgiveness with employee voice behavior. Moreover, POS moderated the positive relationship between voice efficacy and employee voice behavior, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high POS than for employees with low POS. Finally, the results of multilevel moderated mediation analysis showed that POS moderated the mediating effect of voice efficacy on the relationship between leader forgiveness and employee voice behavior. This mediating effect was strong when POS was high.

Key words: leader forgiveness, voice behavior, voice efficacy, perceived organizational support