Tracing the effects of employee involvement and participation on trust in managers: an analysis of covariance structures

Using data from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey of Employees, this article employs structural equation modelling in order to trace the effects of employee involvement and participation on the extent to which British workers trust reciprocally in management. The results point to a series of organizational benefits of participation, including increased job influence, a greater sense of job satisfaction and improved levels of commitment and trust in managers. However, increased job influence was paradoxically linked to lower levels of organizational commitment and trust. The findings generally confirm that employee voice is ‘good’ in principle for building trust, but that the effects of employee voice may work against trust development.     

Employee-oriented HRM and voice behavior: a moderated mediation model of moral identity and trust in management

Abstract

This study examined how employee-orientated human resource management (EOHRM) is related to Chinese employees’ voice. Drawing on the trust literature, we developed and tested an integrative model that involves the mediating role of trust in management in the effect of EOHRM on voice behavior and the moderating role of employees’ moral identity in the EOHRM effects. Data were collected from 251 employees from a variety of occupations in China. Bootstrap-based regression analyses were used to test the research model. Results showed that trust in management partially mediated the relationship between EOHRM and voice behavior. The effect of EOHRM on trust in management and the indirect effect of EOHRM on voice behavior via trust were stronger in employees with higher rather than lower levels of moral identity. These findings suggest that organizations may promote employee voice by implementing HR policies and practices that focus on employees’ personal and family needs and consider employees’ moral identity.     

Cultural intelligence and voice behavior among migrant workers: the mediating role of leader–member exchange

Abstract

This empirical study is the first to explicitly examine cultural intelligence (CQ) as an antecedent of voice behavior and to explore the mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the CQ–voice relationship. Two hundred and sixty-one usable questionnaires were collected from migrant workers in Australia using an online survey. The data were analyzed with regression analyses and structural equation modeling. Results showed that migrant employees with higher CQ were more likely to engage in voice behavior. The positive relationship between CQ and voice behavior was partially mediated by LMX. These findings verify a relatively new individual antecedent (i.e. CQ) of voice behavior and reveal the underlying mediation mechanism that explains the effects of CQ on employee voice. This study also carries important implications for managing culturally-diverse workforces (i.e. migrant workers) regarding the promotion of voice.     

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 Link Between Participation in Management Decision-Making and Quality of Patient Care as Perceived by Chinese Doctors

Abstract

This study examined whether and how participation by doctors in management decision-making was associated with patient care. A questionnaire survey was conducted in three hospitals operating in China. Staff members of the selected hospitals were invited to participate in the survey, measuring perceived quality of patient care, employee participation in management decisions, psychological empowerment and affective commitment. This study focuses on the results of the 160 doctors employed by the hospitals who completed the questionnaire. The study found that psychological empowerment and affective commitment mediated the relationship between participation in management decisions and the quality of patient care as perceived by the doctors. Implications are drawn for public management practice in Chinese health care settings.     

‘My People’: the potential of LGBT employee networks in reducing stigmatization and providing voice

Abstract

This paper explores the separation and isolation from the mainstream workforce that lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees can experience due to their sexual orientation, and how this can affect their voice and silence in the workplace. In response to perceived threats and actual experience of stigma in the workplace, we highlight the need for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) voice in organizations, while unpacking the complexities and concerns for LGBT employees in publicly voicing their sexual orientation at work. We explore how LGBT employee networks help mitigate LGBT isolation at work, and can directly and indirectly provide them with voice in the organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with LGBT employees across organizations in Ireland. The findings confirm that LGBT employees can experience isolation at work, affecting their voice, and that workplace networks may moderate this loneliness and stigma. However, the findings question the value of LGBT employee networks in providing voice for all sexual minority employees. Our research considers the individual-level responses of LGBT employees to participation in, and the value of, employee networks, and the perceived role of these networks in giving them visibility and voice.     

HR practices for enhancing sustainable employability: implementation,use, and outcomes

Abstract

With the aging of the workforce, organizations need to maintain or improve the sustainable employability of their workforce throughout their working life. This raises the question which HR practices increase workers’ sustainable employability at work. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which organizations implement HR practices for enhancing sustainable employability in terms of workers’ health, motivation, and skills and knowledge from the employer’s perspective. In total, 312 owners/directors or HR managers (response rate 13%) filled out the questionnaire. The findings showed that most organizations implemented a range of HR practices to improve the health, motivation, and skills and knowledge of their employees. Perceived effectiveness of these practices were dependent on the number of HR practices that were implemented, employees’ use of and participation in designing these practices. Implementation of HR practices was also related to higher satisfaction with the current employability of employees, and to increased productivity of the organization. Implications for practice and examples of HR practices to enhance sustainable employability are given.     

Tensions in local government employment relationships

Abstract

A wide variety of initiatives characterized under the umbrella term of new public management have been introduced over the past two decades to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the public sector. The implications of these initiatives for public sector employment relationships have been the subject of on-going debate. This article contributes to this debate through examining how employees within local authorities are managed in a time of personal crisis with a particular focus on long-term sickness absence in the context of increased management drives for efficiency under the NPM agenda. The findings reveal that for managers in two local authorities that form the focus of this study there is a tension in struggling to achieve a workable balance between the needs of employees and wider operational requirements, resulting in role ambiguity for line managers and detrimental effects for vulnerable public service workers.     

MAPPING MANAGEMENT STYLES IN EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

In an attempt to clarify the meaning of management style in employee relations and go beyond the limitations of the frames of reference debate, two dimensions of style are identified. Individualism refers to the extent to which personnel policies are focused on the rights and capabilities of individual workers. Collectivism concerns the extent to which management policy is directed towards inhibiting or encouraging the development of collective representation by employees and allowing employees a collective voice in management decision-making. Style is a deliberate choice linked to business policy. Organizations may choose to focus on one or both aspects. Not all firms have a distinctive preferred management style. Survey evidence is analysed and a number of unresolved issues raised which need to be tackled if management style is to become a useful concept in the study of strategic choice in the management of industrial and employee relations.     

Voices unspoken? Understanding how gay employees co-construct a climate of voice/silence in organisations

Abstract

This study aimed to understand how the individual actions of gay employees influence the development of a climate of voice/silence in the workplace. We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with male and female homosexuals. The results reveal two types of boundary tactics (micro-level and structural) that our research participants used to promote their ideal level of separation or integration of their personal and professional identities. Our grounded theory demonstrates that whereas structural boundary tactics promote respect and a climate of voice, micro-level boundary tactics soften conflicts in the short term but solidify a climate of silence from a long-term perspective. We also propose that the insufficiency of institutional mechanisms to support gay people’s right to have a voice at work reduce the likelihood that these workers will risk confronting those who attempt to silence them. The originality of this study is based on the fact that it focuses on actions that gay employees can perform to co-construct a climate of voice that positions them as active social actors and not merely passive recipients of organisational and institutional conditions.     

Giving a voice to managers: forging the desire line through the creation of informal employee voice channels and productive resistance

Abstract

Within the extensive body of employee voice literature, the voice of the ordinary shopfloor employee has resonated loudly. The important role that line managers play in encouraging or inhibiting that voice has also been well documented. However, within the voice literature there has been silence with respect to line managers themselves being considered as voicers. In this paper, these missing managerial voices are amplified through the presentation of a case study of front and middle line manager voice within a university setting. Within this hierarchical organisation subject to increased managerialism, semi-structured interviews with 26 participants were conducted and it was found that line managers’ voice was thwarted due to relational and structural blockages in their formal voice channels. In some cases, this led to suppressed voice and a sense that line managers had no one to voice to. However, some managers were able to be creative and their actions led to productive resistance. While for others, these blockages motivated line managers to use covert ‘underground channels’ where their voice was raised informally and their interests could be advanced. The paper extends our knowledge by considering the line manager as a voicer, and not merely a manager of voice.     

The role of leaders in generating management innovation†

Abstract

This study provides an empirical insight into the level of management innovation in Australian service organisations, conceptualising management innovation using an integrative framework of management innovation which encompasses four dimensions, new managerial practices, processes, structures and techniques. In addition, the study contributes to the contingency-based literature by examining the role of leaders, in respect to both leadership style (initiating and consideration styles) and the use of controls (diagnostic and interactive use), as drivers of management innovation. Data were collected through a mail questionnaire distributed to 445 middle level managers. The findings show that leadership style influences management innovation with a more initiating style associated with the extent of use of new managerial techniques. Management innovation was also influenced by the use of controls with a more interactive (diagnostic) approach associated with the extent of use of new managerial processes and techniques (practices and structure). In line with the Competing Values Framework, the findings highlight the tension involved in the role of leaders in generating management innovation.     

The effect of quality management and participation in decision-making on individual performance

The major objective of the study was to analyze the effects of total quality management (TQM) on improvement efforts and individual performance. Employee response to quality management (QM) and the perceived degree of participation in decision-making (PDM) were considered the major factors affecting employee improvement efforts. The improvement effort factor was expected to influence employee performance. Subjects were 208 employees in three industrial organizations applying TQM in Israel. Three causal models were suggested and tested by means of structural equation modeling using lisrel. The results supported the proposed model. The findings revealed that the influence of PDM on improvement efforts is considerably higher than that of QM. This finding suggests that PDM is the most important component of the TQM process that affects improvement efforts and individual performance. Therefore, ISO 9000 that does not include PDM may not impact individual performance.     

论高校建立ISO9001质量管理体系的有效性

文章针对高校建立IS09001质量管理体系的认识误区及其产生原因进行了探讨,阐述了如何正确认识高等院校IS09001质量管理体系的有效性,认为全员参与是实现其有效性的根本保障。     

Demographic diversity in the workplace and its impact on employee voice: the role of trust in the employer

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between demographic diversity principles and evaluations of employee voice. An analysis of survey data from 707 employees working at 37 hospitality institutions with different star categories confirmed that trust in the employer, followed by the modest contribution of education, is of the utmost importance in the evaluation of voice systems by all employees. Employee evaluations of voice opportunities were found to display differences between male and female employee groups. While generational cohort was a differentiating attribute for the male group, job tenure had the same effect for the female employees. Implications for future research and for HR managers are discussed.     

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.     

Employee voice mechanisms for lesbian,gay, bisexual and transgender expatriation: the role of Employee-Resource Groups (ERGs) and allies

Abstract

Recent literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) expatriates has largely taken an employee perspective. Less attention has been devoted to organizational mechanisms supporting LGBT voice opportunities for global mobility. In this study, we use respondent data from 15 LGBT employees in combination with data from five global mobility managers to examine the role of Employee Resource Groups. Using the depth, scope and level of voice to frame the study in relation to stereotype threat theory, the findings show that discrimination and stigmatization are prevalent features affecting voice. The findings advance three distinct contributions concerning marginalized (LGBT) employee voices about expatriation: the importance of ‘informal’ social dialogue, the shallow ‘depth’ to voice decision-making roles about LGBT expatriation, and a consideration of ‘silence’ in voice literatures.     

The performance of performance appraisal systems: understanding the linkage between appraisal structure and appraisal discrimination complaints

Abstract

Employee perceptions of the fairness of performance evaluations are critical to the success of any appraisal system. Research on performance management includes extensive studies on how bias emerges in the appraisal process. Despite this, there is no empirical evidence linking formal discrimination complaint filings – a key measure of bias - and performance appraisals. To close this gap, we conduct an empirical analysis using information on appraisal systems and discrimination complaints from the US federal government. Our findings suggest that agencies with better-designed appraisal systems will experience higher appraisal-related discrimination complaints, contrary to expectations. In particular, an expansion of training and voice opportunities are associated with an increase in appraisal discrimination complaints, while increased differentiation between performers is not consistently associated with complaints. For managers struggling with performance management, it may be better to spend time on improving performance-focused interpersonal communication rather than redesigning appraisal systems.