The Sound of Leadership: The Impact of Aggressive and Assertive Communication Styles on Employee Voice and Resilience
The Sound of Leadership: The Impact of Aggressive and Assertive Communication Styles on Employee Voice and Resilience

Summary/Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast how two different communication styles from leadership impacts employee voice (how they speak up) and employee resilience (their ability to bounce back after a setback), namely; assertive communication vs verbally aggressive communication. There is much known about how leadership use of communication styles are important for influencing employee engagement and job performance, but very little research has been conducted on how the two opposing communication styles impact employees differently, and this study will develop a better understanding of how these dynamics of leadership theory relate to one another while further developing current literature by understanding their impact on important employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Using an online survey collected from 296 employees across various industries, the researchers collected data using established scales measuring leadership communication styles, employee voice, and employee resilience. To test the hypothesized relationship between the variables, a path analysis was conducted. Results – Results indicate that you can positively impact employee voice and resilience through assertive communication, and while verbal aggression also was positively associated with employee voice, it had a negative impact on resilience. Discussion – Results reveal two dimensions in how workplace communication styles exert influence: Assertive communication and Verbal aggression. Assertive communication produces positive results while the use of verbal aggression has been associated with both positive and negative outcomes. The study offers an additional perspective for the development of leadership theories by identifying the importance of both of these forms of communication, with the emphasis placed on the dominant role that assertive communication plays in terms of both immediate task performance and extending beyond to include the development of the employee's adaptive behavior over the long-term.

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