Voice in a supra-organisational and shared-power world: challenges for voice in cross-sector collaboration

Abstract

Our research takes as its starting point that society faces complex social, environmental and economic problems and that supra-organisational, cross-sector collaborations will increasingly be the vehicles for addressing those problems. The increased use of such supra-organisational collaborations requires collaboration practitioners who design and facilitate projects. However, cross-sector collaborations present new challenges for HRM. This exploratory study collected data from 15 interviews to create new understandings of work of cross-sector collaboration practitioners. An interpretive analysis of the practitioners’ perspectives reveals that aspects of voice are considered essential for the success of cross-sector collaborations, and that voice is improvement-oriented in these contexts. Voice creates an understanding of the different perspectives among cross-sector collaborators and establishes trust. Voice forms a platform from which the differing objectives of the collaborators can be met, it engages multiple parties from very different organisations and professions, and it maximises the potential of the collaboration. Membership and representativeness of governance groups are closely linked to voice and its benefits in cross-sector collaborations. Our findings emphasise the importance of collaborators understanding each other’s motivations and ways of thinking, and the need to give voice to diverse identities that come together in cross-sector collaborations.     

Employee voice to supervisors

This article reports the results of two studies examining some factors that increase the likelihood that employees will voice to their supervisors. The way employees perceive that their supervisors manage employee voice was identified as a major cause of the likelihood that employees will voice upward. The Supervisor as Voice Manager Scale is presented along with data demonstrating its reliability and validity. Theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.Faculty of Management, McGill University.Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.Mathematics & Computer Science, Meredith College.School of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology.     

组织内信任对员工建言行为的影响研究述评

员工建言行为是员工向企业提出一些创新想法和建议,是企业生存和发展所必需的。组织内信任是组织保持竞争优势的源泉,它能鼓励员工说真话,从而增强员工建言行为,提高组织决策质量,最终提高组织绩效。     

为何言路难开?领导拒谏构念维度与形成机理探究

员工谏言不仅具有建设性,而且具有挑战性和结果的不确定性,使得领导者可能纳谏也可能拒谏。然而,现有研究主要关注员工谏言与领导纳谏,却忽略了领导拒谏。本研究在回顾员工谏言及相关研究的基础上发现,领导者会对员工谏言进行建设性评估和威胁性评估,具有建设性和防御性两种行为目的。基于此,首先,从领导者的双元行为目的出发探讨了领导拒谏的概念与维度,依据发展视角、人际视角和防御视角将领导拒谏划分为:指导员工驱动的拒谏、维持关系驱动的拒谏、保证权威驱动的拒谏。其次,分析了领导拒谏的形成机理,从谏言内容、谏言员工和谏言行为三方面考察领导者对员工谏言的认知评估过程,详细讨论了组织距离如何通过领导注意间接影响领导拒谏,并探讨了权力距离在领导注意与领导拒谏之间所具有的调节作用。本研究有助于推动领导拒谏的理论构建,拓展认知评估理论的应用,而且能为组织管理实践给予一定的参考与借鉴。     

Hirschman's loyalty: Attitude or behavior?

Over the past two decades there has been much controversy over what Hirschman intended by the term loyalty in his bookExit, Voice, and Loyalty. Some have interpreted Hirschman's loyalty as an attitude that deters exit and promotes voice. Others have interpreted Hirschman's loyalty as a distinct behavior, like exit and voice, that results from dissatisfaction. This article examines both views of loyalty simultaneously. First, comprehensive and reliable scales to measure the behavioral responses to dissatisfaction are developed. Second, the relationship between loyalty and the behavioral responses to dissatisfaction are examined. Results of this research indicate that both interpretations are important and together help us better understand how employees behave when they are dissatisfied.     

DRAKE双子星内话系统简介及案例分析

语音通信交换系统是地空通信的终端部分,通过对接入的VHF、HF、地面电话、卫星电话等各种通信资源进行交换和管理,为管制员与空中飞机之间提供地空无线电语音通信及管制区之间的电话移交及协调通信。论文以海口现场情况为例,主要阐述DRAKE双子星内话系统的组成,并列举一例重大案例分析,为维护人员提供一点思路。     

The voice of the loyal manager: Distinguishing attachment from commitment

The purpose of this article is to use Albert Hirschman's Exit, Voice, and Loyalty framework to analyze the extent to which corporate employees are merely attached to the firm rather than committed. A model of managerial loyalty is developed where loyalty is defined as the percentage pay increase that an employee would require to leave the current firm for alternative employment. Independent variables in the model include barriers to exit and voice. This model was tested on three data sets from North American airlines. This model received empirical support during a stable environment but was not strongly supported during a more turbulent environment. Implications of the results are discussed.     

无线通信技术在智能配电网中的应用研究

早期有线通信技术传递信号的强度较弱且信息安全指数较低,导致用户重要信息被窃取,造成了重大的经济损失。随着通信行业的技术进步,无线通信模式得到广泛运用,语音信息隐藏技术作为无线通信的新技术,不仅实现了数据信息的安全、高效传输,也促进了智能电网的有序构建。文章分析了无线通信技术的优点,重点阐述了信息隐藏技术的运用状况。     

Consistency vs Flexibility: The Impact of Employee Voice in Rule-Based and Discretionary Decision Procedures

Consistency and flexibility are desirable, but incompatible, features of decision-making procedures. A comparison of a rule-based decision procedure (maximizing consistency) with a discretionary decision procedure (maximizing flexibility) was conducted. Employee voice was predicted to interact with decision procedure in impacting fairness perceptions. Student participants (N = 128) in a 2 × 2 laboratory simulation viewed videotaped depictions of a supervisor discussing a positive drug test result with an employee. The employee was given, or not given, an opportunity to explain; the supervisor was permitted discretion in determining the consequence or was completely bound by company policy. The proposed advantages of each decision procedure were obtained under contrasting levels of employee voice. Voice was desirable when the supervisor had discretionary authority; voice was unnecessary or even detrimental when a rule-based procedure was used. No overall preference between these two decision procedures was evident.     

High involvement management,high-performance work systems and well-being

Studies on the impact of high-performance work systems on employees' well-being are emerging but the underlying theory remains weak. This paper attempts to develop theory of the effects on well-being of four dimensions of high-performance work systems: enriched jobs, high involvement management, employee voice, and motivational supports. Hypothesized associations are tested using multilevel models and data from Britain's Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004 (WERS2004). Results show that enriched jobs are positively associated with both measures of well-being: job satisfaction and anxiety–contentment. Voice is positively associated with job satisfaction, and motivational supports with neither measure. The results for high involvement management are not as predicted because it increases anxiety and is independent of job satisfaction.     

职业指导新工具推介——运用YY语音进行职业指导

当前形势下,只运用传统方式开展大学生职业指导工作已显不足,运用"新媒体"作为辅助教学工具可起到较好的效果。本文主要以"YY语音"工具为试点,论述了"YY语音"在大学生职业指导方面的作用、效果,并提出了进一步推进运用的设想,为大学生职业指导网络平台建设提出了新的可能性。通过充分运用"YY语音"工具,聚集师生、校友、企业等多方面的资源并加以综合运用,为大学生的顺利就业和未来职业发展助力。     

Hirschman's loyalty construct

Of the three key words in Hirschman's (1970) widely cited exit, voice, and loyalty framework, loyalty is the least understood. Some portray it as a third behavioral response to dissatisfaction (after exit and voice). Others see loyalty as an affective moderating variable that influences the choice between exit and voice (and/or the levels of them). Further, of those who interpret loyalty as a moderator, some claim it reduces the incidence and volume of voice, while others argue for the opposite effect. This article compares alternative conceptions of loyalty and identifies conditions under which one or another conception is most appropriate.     

Gender and voice in aged care: embeddedness and institutional forces

Abstract

Little is known about the role of gender in employee voice which is a particular research gap in feminised industries such as residential aged care. This article employs a multiple case study method to examine employee voice in residential aged care in New Zealand. It investigates the role of ‘embedded’ voice mechanisms, with a focus on informal voice and managerial agency as well as the impact of the external environment on organisational voice. This article questions the role of voice in maintaining low wages in residential aged care; and what role gender has in the embeddedness of voice. It finds that managerial agency is important at an organisational level, but that gender regimes influence institutional forces that have a greater influence on employee voice.     

Corporate conditions conducive to employee voice: A subordinate perspective

Employees' voice is conceptualized as a necessary condition for organizational success. A model of employee voice is proposed that encompasses employee predispositions, receptivity to employee voice in the microstructure, and affirmative norms for voice in the societal macrostructure. The model was examined by testing the hypothesis that subordinates' satisfaction will be greater when corporate conditions are receptive to employee voice and when the organization is perceived to be committed both to quality in product and quality of employees' work life. a study with 150 employees from a variety of organizations is reported. The results produced rather strong support for the research hypothesis.     

The cross‐cultural study of LMX and individual employee voice: The moderating role of conflict avoidance

This article examines the role of national culture, measured by conflict avoidance, on the relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and individual employee voice. Using data collected from automotive industry employees in the United States and Korea, the findings show that conflict avoidance is negatively related to employee voice and also moderates the relationship between LMX and employee voice in the Korean sample. In particular, the relationship between LMX and voice becomes less positive when conflict avoidance is high. On the other hand, conflict avoidance does not have a direct effect on employee voice as well as an interactive effect with LMX on employee voice in the U.S. sample. This study, therefore, highlights the importance of the national culture in the comparative study of employee voice.     

The long goodbye: new establishments and the fall of union voice in Britain

This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switching costs associated with changing regimes. The paper presents data from WERS, which is then analysed in terms of the model. We find a rise in voice regimes that do not include unions (i.e. the growth of so-called non-union voice) and a clear decline in voice regimes involving unions, particularly union-only voice. Ecological factors (i.e. new entrants and the demise of older workplaces) are primary in explaining the rise in non-union voice, whereas the shift to dual forms of voice (made up of union and non-union regimes side by side) was primarily the result of switches undertaken by union only workplaces as early as the 1950s.     

Mind the channel! An affordance perspective on how digital voice channels encourage or discourage employee voice

We apply an affordance lens on qualitative data from three case organisations using a digital voice channel providing employees with the opportunity to speak up via answering periodic mini‐surveys and making comments in an anonymous mini‐forum. We find that imbrications of material and social agencies (i.e., the voice channel's features and managerial reactions to voice) in the respective organisational contexts culminate in employees perceiving the channel as either affording or constraining voice, leading to perceived voice outcomes that eventually encourage or discourage them to speak up. Whether voice is encouraged or discouraged partly results from the mere interaction between employees and the digital voice channel independent of managerial reactions. Our findings thus challenge the emphasis on managerial behaviour and reactions to voice in explaining voice behaviour and outcomes in extant literature.     

Exercised Voice as Management Failure: Implications of Willing Compliance Theories of Management and Individualism for De Facto Employee Voice

The advantages of employee voice for organizations and individuals are well known, but in practice those who exercise voice sometimes face serious sanctions. Tensions surrounding voice are rooted in tacit presumptions of willing compliance embedded in influential theories of management, particularly the works of Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon and those who follow their traditions. Employees who exercise voice demonstrate that management has failed to secure willing compliance, action which managers may take as personal affront. The individualism prevalent in the U.S. may exacerbate managerial tendencies to respond negatively and emotionally to those who exercise voice. Reprisals lead to self-censorship, limit de facto voice and restrict crucial organizational feedback. In addition to being valued as a right and a source of important organizational feedback, employee voice needs to be considered as an ongoing struggle within organizations.     

The meanings and purpose of employee voice

In this paper we present and assess an analytical framework for examining the different ‘meanings, purposes and practices’ of employee voice. The data were collected from eighteen organizations in England, Scotland and Ireland. Managers defined voice very much in terms of the perceived contribution to efficiency and tended to downplay notions of rights; however, the linkages between voice and performance outcomes remain problematic. Overall, employee voice is best understood as a complex and uneven set of meanings and purposes with a dialectic shaped by external regulation, on the one hand, and internal management choice, on the other. The evidence suggests that the degree to which voice practices are embedded in an organization is much more important than reporting the extent of any particular individual or collective schemes for employee voice.     

How does perceived formality shape unheard challenging voices?

Abstract

It has been argued that upward challenge is important because it allows employees to have a say in organisational decision-making. Yet upward challenge may go unheard in organisations. Formal voice mechanisms are largely considered to be advantageous for encouraging employees to share their views and concerns. However, recent papers calling into question the distinction between formal and informal voice have prompted investigation into the value of formal voice mechanisms in encouraging upward challenge. This qualitative study attempted to understand in what ways formal voice mechanisms had the potential to create unheard voices by first establishing a working definition of formal voice mechanisms. Using a sample of 19 UK police officers, participants used a card sort to categorise formal and informal voice mechanisms. They subsequently identified, through semi-structured interviews, that formal voice mechanisms could be considered risky for upward challenge. The findings can be used by scholars and practitioners as a framework to identify where challenging voices may be going unheard.