Encouraging employee voice behavior through supportive leadership, commitment and customer-oriented behavior in restaurant in Türkiye

Supportive leadership has been recognized as an essential tool for businesses to achieve employees’ commitment and customer-oriented behaviors. This study, which is based on a questionnaire survey conducted among restaurant employees, aims to understand the relationship between supportive leadership (SUL), job commitment (JOC) team commitment (TEC), customer-oriented behavior (COBEH) and employee voice behavior (EVOB). The proposed research model was empirically tested using a survey of 457 employees from casual dining restaurants in Batman, Türkiye. The collected data were assessed using structural equation modeling. Analyses showed that SUL played a direct role in determining employees’ JOC and TEC. Similarly, the JOC and TEC had a positive and direct relationship with COBEH and, lastly, COBEH had a positive and direct relationship with EVOB. This study provides a theoretical framework for academics and practitioners with a comprehensive perspective on restaurant employees by drawing attention to the structure that creates employee commitment and presenting a theoretical framework on what types of commitment trigger in customer behavior.