When do low-initiative employees feel responsible for change and speak up to managers?

Research on proactive motivation has shown that employees' personal initiative tendency relates positively to the responsibility they feel for change, which then predicts upward voice. This study focuses on circumstances when low-initiative employees feel responsible for change and speak up. We examine how the interpersonal work environment (i.e., transformational leadership and psychological safety) moderates the indirect relationship between personal initiative tendency and upward voice via felt responsibility. We collected multi-source survey data from 133 employees, their co-workers, and managers working in 41 automotive repair shops and hair salons. At the first stage of the indirect effect, managers' transformational leadership substituted for employees' personal initiative tendency in predicting the responsibility employees felt for change. At the second stage, psychological safety operated as a catalyst: Employees' feelings of responsibility and upward voice were not related in low psychologically safe workgroups, but were positively related in high psychologically safe workgroups. To help low-initiative employees feel responsible for change and speak up at work, organizations and managers need to promote both the value of change and safety in taking interpersonal risks.