The Relationship Between Leader Motivating Language and Self-Efficacy

Leadership language and its effects on employee affect and outcomes have experienced significant advances in research progress and practice in recent years. Communication researchers have explored and developed persuasive/framing models for practice to bridge the gap between leader intent and employee outcomes through verbal communication with the prospect of enhancing employee motivation. This article takes a unique approach to these questions by using a different communication model to clarify the nature and processes of the relationships between motivating language theory and its effects on employee self-efficacy and performance. Consequently, this study examines the role of motivating language theory leader language, with a primarily female group of 151 health care professionals, as an enhancement of employee self-efficacy. The methodology is a partial least squares model that explores the strength and direction of leader motivating language with self-efficacy and performance. All the relationships were supported as positive and significant. The partial least squares coefficients indicate that employee self-efficacy is 34% higher with increased levels of leader motivating language. The same data analysis reveals that employee performance grows by 20% with higher motivating language speech, and that employees with higher levels of self-efficacy will perform 10% better than in those cases when self-efficacy is lessened. Finally, future recommendations are presented to nourish these relationships through research—including greater generalizability, and for practice through training and development design.