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WEEK ELEVEN: EMPLOYEE VOICE - Coggle Diagram
WEEK ELEVEN: EMPLOYEE VOICE
Employee voice
is the informal and discretionary communication by an employee of ideas, concerns, suggestions or information about problems to persons who might be able to take appropriate action with the intent to bring about improvement or change. It also involves providing opportunities for employees to exercise their voice through organisational policies and culture. These factors should be considered as part of organisational CSR initiatives, research shows organisations that empower their employees to have a voice stand out, have a greater sense of wellbeing, in turn, are more productive.
Why worry about employee voice?
What influences employee voice:
Violence at the community level (negatively impacts employees and in turn their voice within an organisation)
Levels of unrest and corruption at the country level
(negatively impacts individual employees and thus their voice in an organisation)
Context of peace and harmony (positively influences employee voice and how they express that voice in the organisation)
Attitudes and behaviours of employees both within and outside the organisation are interlinked. Organisations that endeavour to empower employees to express themselves are more likely to consist of your more enthusiastic and productive members. However irrespective of an organisations culture if the broader settings and factors surrounding the organisation are overly negative in terms of violence, corruption etc, that will no doubt seep into the organisations culture as well.
Effects of employee voice inside the workplace
Perceptions of procedural justice
▪ Procedures that allow employee input viewed more positively by employees. Whether it be informal tea rooms or quality circles, intermitting meetings.
▪ Lack of employee input (an opportunity for) may lead to reduced levels of organisational identification, commitment, trust, job satisfaction, OCB and increased turnover. People tend to gravitate towards work contexts where they feel their input will be valued and make a tangible difference.
Perceptions of self-efficacy and self-control
▪ Lack of opportunities for exercising one's voice can lead to a decline in motivation, heighten dissatisfaction, physical and psychological withdrawal. Overall under such circumstances, your self-efficacy decreases because of this perceived loss of self-control.
Cognitive dissonance
▪ Inconsistency between one’s beliefs and one’s behaviours. So you might be inherently vocal but your workplace may stifle that, here cognitive dissonance will prevail.
Feelings of helplessness, apathy, and anger
▪ For those who value self-control, lack of voice could lead to anger which will then create a negative undercurrent to all the work you do for your organisation.
Effects of employee voice outside the workplace
Community engagement
▪ Opportunities for self-direction and to exercise one's voice you are likely to increase employee community engagement.
Affective states
▪ Where there are voice opportunities this will impact employee emotions (e.g. life dissatisfaction, stress - having avenues that you can explore in order to express those emotional states will help you cope, increase resilience) which in turn influence their level of community engagement.
Cognitive states
▪ Voice opportunities impact employee cognitive states (e.g. cynicism, alienation, helplessness) which in turn influence their level of community engagement. The rational here suggests that the more voice opportunities an individual is exposed to, the more liberating, the more free will a person feels empowered to experience and therefore are likely to have and experience healthier cognitive mindsets.
Behavioural states
▪ Voice opportunities impact employee behavioural states (e.g. depression, substance abuse) which in turn influence their level of community engagement. An individual who is in their own personal bubble of suffering if they don't feel that they have safe avenues to express themselves the result could be quite dire.
The law and opportunities for employee voice in the workplace
While advocating democratic values for the governance of society, most organisations located within democracies do not advocate the same approach for the governance of themselves we typically see hierarchies with significant power differences.
Increase in institutional shareholders (e.g. investment companies) and the concurrent decline of organised labour (e.g. unions) this has resulted in declining employee voice. Individualist agenda is to blame - only the loudest proudest, strongest voice wins out = inequity in employee voice.
Legislative frameworks that place the interests of shareholders (i.e. owners) above all other stakeholders on average reduces opportunities for employee voice. Indeed the shareholder focus tends to win out as profit maximization is the primary goal of organisations.
Opportunities available for managers to encourage employee voice by citing potential benefits for shareholders in the eyes of the law
Policymakers should consider developing legislation pertaining to organisations that provides flexibility for organisational decision-makers to think beyond shareholders and focus more on the employees who do have a vital stake in the organisations success.
Employees remain silent due to the belief that their input will be ignored or will not make a tangible difference. Silence on the part of employees can cost organisation via limited idea generation and reduced productivity. Human nature indictates that people will work harder at bringing ideas they feel apart of to fruition.
As most workplaces are hierarchies limited protection is provided for employees - due to lack of protection/fear.
The majority of employees may feel unsafe to exercise their voice, even on important concerns such as medical negligence, safety violations, fraud etc.
Modern reality of employee voice