Authentic leadership is widely considered a positive form of moral leadership that emphasizes a leader’s self-awareness, self-concordance, and modeling of self-regulatory behaviors. It is expected that authentic leaders foster moral employee behavior. However, empirical evidence for this assumption with a clear focus on the moral domain is still rather scarce. Furthermore, little is known about mediating mechanisms, especially pertaining to self-regulation of followers. Our research focused on two important facets of moral employee behavior: voice and silence. We (a) examined relationships between authentic leadership, moral voice, and two major forms of moral silence (quiescent and acquiescent) and (b) tested follower constructive cognition and moral efficacy as self-regulatory mechanisms in a serial mediation model. We conducted a cross-sectional study with employees from different organizations (n = 295). As expected, analyses indicated that authentic leadership is positively related to self-reported voice and negatively to self-reported silence on moral issues. Pertaining to the outcomes quiescent moral silence and moral voice, results revealed a serial mediation effect via constructive cognition and moral efficacy. Furthermore, unique indirect effects of each mediator were found. Thus, authentic leadership can enhance moral behavior mediated by follower constructive cognition and moral efficacy. Based on these insights, new interventions for overcoming silence and promoting voice in organizations can be designed.

真正的领导被广泛认为是道德领导的一种积极形式，它强调了领导者的自我意识，自我一致性以及自我调节行为的模型。期望真正的领导者能够培养道德的员工行为。但是，关于这一假设的经验证据仍然十分缺乏道德领域。此外，人们对调解机制知之甚少，特别是关于追随者的自我调节。我们的研究集中在道德员工行为的两个重要方面：声音和沉默。我们（a）研究了真实领导力，道德声音和两种主要形式的道德沉默（静态和默认）之间的关系，以及（b）测试了追随者的建构性认知和道德效能作为一系列调解模型中的自我调节机制。n  = 295）。正如预期的那样，分析表明，真正的领导与自我报告的声音成正比，而与道德问题上的自我默示成反比。关于结果的静态道德沉默和道德声音，结果揭示了通过建构性认知和道德效能的一系列调解作用。此外，发现了每种介体的独特的间接作用。因此，真正的领导可以增强由追随者的建设性认知和道德效能所介导的道德行为。基于这些见解，可以设计出新的干预措施来克服沉默并在组织中增强声音。