Employee Voice and Silence

(Hontz and Braude, 2019)

In this blog, I’m going to briefly explain about the difference between Employee voice and silence and, importance of Employee voice.

Definitions

Morrison (2014) defines employee voice as informal communication by an employee of ideas, suggestions etc about work-related issues to persons who might be able to take appropriate action (eg: supervisor, team mates). But Strauss (2006) points out, voice is a weaker term than some of the others, such as participation.

Silence is not merely a lack of speech, it means not sharing of important information what is on employee’s mind (Morrison & Milliken 2000). Eg: not speaking up when one has a concern or information about a problem.

Types of employee silence and voices

According to Dyne (2003),

There are 3 types of silences;

1. Acquiescent Silence (Keeping opinions to self due to low self-efficacy to make a difference)
2. Defensive Silence (Omitting facts to protect the self)
3. ProSocial Silence (Protecting proprietary knowledge to benefit the organization)

There are 3 types of voices;

1. Acquiescent Voice (Agreeing with the group due to low self-efficacy to make a difference)
2. Defensive Voice (Proposing ideas that focus on others to protect the self)
3. ProSocial Voice (Suggesting constructive ideas for change to benefit the organization)

The Importance of Employee Voice

It is important to understand why employees do not speak up when they have important information.  If they don’t speak up, both employee’s performance and motivation will be affected. On the other hand, absorbing employees’ idea and information into business decisions can help to produce better decisions and motivate employees. 

In many organisations, employees’ voices are muted, and they are reluctant to raise their concerns, especially when they feel their supervisor would take their information in negative manner (Detert et al. 2010, Milliken et al. 2003). 

Further, Wilkinson (2011) suggests that appreciating employee voice can;

1. Improve employee attitudes, loyalty, commitment, and more cooperative relations.
2. Improve performance, lower absenteeism and greater teamwork.
3. Improve managerial systems by identifying employees’ ideas, knowledge, and experience

It is also believed that many leaders in the organizations do not aware about the tendency toward silence. As Detert &Trevino (2010, p. 264) wrote, many leaders unintentionally impose authority ranking and they believe that employees feel free to communicate upward, failing to recognize the reluctance and fear that many employees experience when it comes to upward voice.

Employee voice can be seen as the expression of employee’s rights. In other words, industrial democracy, which sees participation as a fundamental democratic right for workers to extend a degree of control over managerial decision making. Foley & Polyani (2006) argue that workplace democracy allows skills and values to develop.

Employee voice can be representative (and largely union voice) for industrial Relations. Employee voice can change quality and productivity in good manner, while identifying the problems (Gollan & Wilkinson, 2007).

References

Detert, J. R., Trevino, L. K. (2010) ‘Speaking up to higher ups: how supervisor and skip-level leaders influence employee voice’, Organ Sci, 21, pp. 249–70.

Dyne, L. V., Ang, S., & Botero, I. C. (2003, September) 'Conceptualizing Employee Silence and Employee Voice as Multidimensional Constructs', Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), pp. 1359-1392.

Foley, J., & Polanyi, M. (2006) ‘Workplace democracy: Why bother? Economic and Industrial Democracy’, 27(1), pp. 173–191.

Hontz, J., and Braude, K. (2019) ‘It’s Time for Parents to Speak UP’. Available at: https://educationpost.org/its-time-for-parents-to-speak-up/ (Accessed 14 Nov. 2019).

Gollan, P., & Wilkinson, A. (2007) ‘Contemporary developments in information and consultation’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, (18)7, pp. 1133–1145.

Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W., Hewlin, P. (2003) ‘An exploratory study of employee silence: issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why’, Journal of Management Studies, 40, pp. 1453–76.

Morrison E. W., Milliken, F. J. (2000) ‘Organizational silence: a barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world’, The Academy of Management Review, 25(4), pp. 706–25.

Morrison, E. W. (2014) 'Employee Voice and Silence', The Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, pp. 173-197.

Strauss, G. (2006) ‘Worker participation—some under- considered issues’, Industrial Relations, 45(4), pp. 778–803.

Business Simulation Games

(Advantexe, 2017)

History of modern business simulation games

First known use of modern business simulation game can be trace back to 1955. The Rand Corporation developed a simulation program, called Monopologs, for U.S. Air Force. This game simulated the Air Force’s supply system (Jackson, 1959). In 1956, well known business game, Top Management Decision Simulation, was developed and it is known to be the first business game ever used in a university class, in 1957 at the University of Washington (Watson, 1981).

General Electric, IBM, Procter & Gamble were among early business users of simulation games. Faria and Schumacher (1984) stated that, by mid 1960s, aerospace giant Boeing had three business simulation games for different levels of managers.

Why Simulations Games?

Effective and efficient strategic decision making is the most important factor for the success of an organization. These decision-making processes determine whether the business will continue to survive or not.

In real life, each business organization is considered as a player and rivalry among the organizations is like a game.  Each organization makes strategic decisions based on some uncertain information. Organization sometimes can’t predict the output when it changes some of its variables. Eg: If price and marketing were increased, organization should know how these variables would affect the consumer demand.

Sometimes, organization should be able identify the moves that other players in the market could make as a reply to its tactics. This helps the organization to choose the best strategy and prepare itself for rivals’ moves. Himmelweit et al. (2001) stated that Coca-Cola’s president Doug Ivester once mentioned as;

"I look at the business like a chessboard. You always need to be seeing three, four, five moves ahead; otherwise, your first move can prove fatal’’.

Therefore, it is vital to train employees to handle different decision-making situations they face in their day-to-day work activities (Lainema, 2003). This could even be trained from when they were in the business school. Unfortunately, most of the business schools are not sufficiently preparing students to understand and cope with the levels of ambiguity and uncertainty they will inevitably face when they take up positions in organizations (Aram and Noble, 1999).

This trend has been changing in positive manner. With the advancement of technology and mathematical modelling, simulations can represent the real-world business environment perfectly. According Faria (1998), more than 1700 business schools in USA have been using simulations. Wolfe and Roberts (1993) argue that simulations represent the real-world issues faced by the managers and, the simulation environment is the most realistic one offered in an off the job training. Simulations can be general purpose or specialized one particularly designed for an industry or organisation (Fripp,2004).

Finally, Doyle (2000) identified following advantages in Business Simulation Games

1. Motivating and entertaining
2. Provides risk free environment
3. Analyse different scenarios and strategies
4. Experimental learning.

References

Advantexe (2017) How Business Simulation Models for 2025 Can Build Skills Today. Available at: https://www.advantexe.com/blog/how-business-simulation-models-for-2025-can-build-skills-today (Accessed 7 Nov. 2019).

Aram, E. & Noble, D. (1999) ‘Educating prospective managers in the complexity of organizational life’, Management Learning, 30(3), pp. 321-342.

Doyle, D. and Brown, F. W. (2000) ‘Using a business simulation to teach applied skills - the benefits and the challenges of using student teams from multiple countries’,  Journal of European industrial training, 330-336.

Faria, A.J. (1998) ‘Business simulation games: current usage levels – an update’, Simulation and Gaming, 29, pp. 295-308.

Faria, A. J. and Schumacher, M. (1984) ‘The Use of Decision Simulations in Management Training Programs’, Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, 11, pp. 220-225.

Fripp, J. (1994) ‘Why use business simulations?’, Executive Development, 7(1).

Himmelweit, S., Simonetti, R. and Trigg, A. (2001) ‘ Neoclassical and institutionalist perspectives on economic behaviour’. UK: Thomson Learning.

Jackson, J. R. (1959) ‘Learning from Experience in Business Decision Games’, California Management Review, 1, pp. 23-29.

 Lainema, T. and Makkonen, P. (2003) ‘Applying constructivist approach to educational business games: Case REALGAME’, SIMULATION & GAMING, 34(1), pp. 131-149.

Watson, H. J. (1981) ‘Computer Simulation in Business’, New York: John Wiley & Sons Publishing Company.