Employee Voice

What is employee Voice?

The informal and discretionary communication by an employee of ideas, suggestions, concerns, or information about problems to persons who might be able to take appropriate action with the intent to bring about improvement or change.

Providing opportunities for employee's to exercise their voice through organisational policies and culture should increasingly be considered as part of organisational CSR initiatives.

Employee voice and employee attitudes and behaviours inside the workplace

Perceptions of procedural justice
– Procedures that allow employee input viewed more
positively by employees
– Lack of employee input (an opportunity for) may lead to reduced levels of organisational identification, commitment, trust, job satisfaction, OCB, and increased turnover

Why worry about employee voice?

Employee voice influences:

Violence at community level
Levels of unrest and corruption at country level
Level of peace
Attitudes and behaviours of employees both within and outside the organisation.

Modern reality of employee voice

The majority feel unsafe to exercise their voice
As most workplaces are hierarchies limited protection is provided for employees
Employees remain silent due to the belief that their input will be ignored or will not make a tangible difference.

Perceptions of self-efficacy and self-control
– Lack of opportunities for exercising voice can lead to decline in motivation, dissatisfaction, physical and psychological withdrawal

Cognitive dissonance
– Inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s behaviours

Feelings of helplessness, apathy, and anger
– For those who value self-control, lack of voice could lead to anger

effect of employee voice outside the workplace

Community engagement:
Opportunities to self- direction and to exercise one’s voice likely to increase employee community engagement

How do legal frameworks influence employee voice opportunities in the workplace?

Affective states:
Voice opportunities impact employee emotions (eg stress), which in turn influence their level of community engagement

Cognitive states:
Voice opportunities impact employee cognitive states (eg. Helplessness) which in turn influence their level of community engagement

Behavioural states:
Voice opportunities impact employee’s behavioural states (eg. Depression) which in turn influence their level of community engagement

The law and opportunities for employee voice

Opportunities available for managers to encourage employee voice by citing potential benefits for shareholders in the eyes of the law

§ While advocating a democratic values for the governance of society, most organisations located within democracies do not advocate the same approach for the governance of themselves

§ Legislative frameworks that places the interests of shareholders (i.e. owners) above all other stakeholders on average reduces opportunities for employee voice

Increase in institutional shareholders (e.g. investment companies) and concurrent decline of organised labour (e.g. unions) has resulted in declining employee voice

Policy makers should consider developing legislation pertaining to organisations that provides flexibility for organisational decision-makers to think beyond shareholders