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.