Employee voice: An antecedent to organisational engagement?

Dr Kevin RuckDr Mary Welch

University of Central Lancashire, UK

Introduction

• Practical inspiration for the study:– How can internal communication managers contribute to

organisational effectiveness?• Theoretical underpinnings:

– By influencing employee engagement?– By enabling employee voice?

• Scholarly contributions needed?– Gruman and Saks (2014) note that little attention has been

given to the relationship between voice and engagement – Reissner & Pagan (2013) highlight the need for research into

relationships between communication and engagement

Literature review

• Employee voice and silence• Voice concept history stretches back centuries• However, often depicted as starting with:

– Hirschman's 1970s consumer behaviour work on exit, voice and loyalty

– Through Farrel's (1983) application of the concept to employees and addition of neglect

– To Van Dyne, Ang and Botero's (2003) work on employee silence and voice:• Employee voice: intentionally expressing work related ideas, information and

opinions• Employee silence: intentionally withholding work related ideas, information

and opinions

Conceptual framework

• Internal communication, dimensions include:– Team peer, project

group, line-manager and senior manager communication• Internal corporate

communication

• Employee engagementKahn (1990), Schaufeli and Bakker (2004)Saks (2006) engagement focus- Job engagement• Organisation

engagement

Welch, 2011.

Methodology• Confidential, anonymous survey strategy• Self-administrated, cross-sectional questionnaire designed for the study• The Internal Communication and Organisational Engagement Questionnaire

(ICOEQ)– Employee information needs gauged – Internal corporate communication method preferences assessed– Internal corporate communication satisfaction measured

• Including three questions exploring employee voice, satisfaction with opportunities for upward communication

• Views of internal communication at three levels drawn from Welch and Jackson's (2007) internal communication matrix: senior management; line management; and, peer communication

– Engagement indicated via adaptation of Saks (2006) organisation engagement approach and synthesis with Kahn's (1990) view of engagement

– One item captured employee views of the organisation as a good place to work– A qualitative section explored views on communication strengths and weaknesses – Demographic information

Data collection: five organisations

Organisation Population (approximate)

Number of respondents

Response rate (approximate)

Government department in Wales 1200 276 23 percent

Local authority in England (1) 420 167 39 percent

Local authority in England (2) 900 159 16 percent

Housing Association in England 800 205 26 percent

Financial services department in Scotland 2400 1259 52 percent

Research objectives

1. How satisfied are employees with opportunities to exercise their voice?

2. How good are line managers and senior managers at responding to suggestions from employees?

3. To what extent might employee voice be positively associated with organisational engagement?

Satisfaction with employee voice

The study found a lower level of satisfaction with ‘seeking views’ by senior managers compared to line managers.

Organisation n Mean* SD Satisfaction**

GovOff 276 3.15 0.78 35%CouncilA 167 3.28 0.55 39%FinSvces 1259 3.63 0.72 59%HousAssoc 205 3.50 0.69 59%CouncilB 159 2.81 0.80 28%

*Opportunities to feed my views upwards: 1, very dissatisfied, 5 very satisfied. **Percentages are 4 and 5 scores combined.

Responding to suggestions and allowing influence

GovOffSM LM

CouncASM LM

FinSvcsSM LM

HousAssocSM LM

CouncBSM LM

Responding to suggestions from employees and representatives

37

50

15

67

63

74

38

66

10

52

Allowing employees and representatives to influence decisions

28

45

7

58

56

68

29

56

6

39

n 276 167 1259 205 159

Notes: 1, very dissatisfied, 5 very satisfied; % is combined 4 and 5 results. SM, Senior Manager.LM, Line Manager.

The study found very low levels of satisfaction with senior managers responding and allowing employees to influence decisions in two organisations.

Correlation comparison of employee voice and organisational engagement

GovOff CouncA FinSvcs HousAssoc CouncB Average

r r r r r r

Cognitive .24** .21** .39** .24** .21** .35**

Emotional .56** .44** .52** .48** .50** .53**

Behavioural .30** .27** .40** .37** .26** .37**

n 276 167 1259 205 159 2066

**Correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed). The average is the combined data set for all five organisations

The study consistently found stronger correlations with ‘emotional organisational engagement’ than with cognitive and behavioural engagement.

Employee voice: a possible antecedent

to organisational engagement?

ORGANISATIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Allowing influence

Opportunities for voice

Responding to

suggestions

Conclusion

Or is it the other way

round?

ORGANISATIONAL ENGAGEMENT

Allowing influence

Opportunities for voice

Responding to

suggestions

ReferencesFarrell, D., 1983. Exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect as responses to job dissatisfaction: A multidimensional scaling study. Academy of management journal, 26(4), pp.596-607.

Gruman, J.A., Saks, A. 2014. Being psychologically present when speaking up: employee voice engagement. In Wilkinson et al. (Eds) Handbook of Research on Employee Voice, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Hirschman, A.O., 1974. " Exit, voice, and loyalty": Further reflections and a survey of recent contributions. Social Science Information, 13(1), pp.7-26.

Kahn, W.A. 1990. Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work. Academy of Management Journal. 33(4), pp.692-724.

Reissner, S. and Pagan, V., 2013. Generating employee engagement in a public–private partnership: management communication activities and employee experiences. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(14), pp.2741-2759.

Saks, A. M. 2006 Antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 21(7), pp.600-619.

Schaufeli, W.B. and Bakker, A.B., 2004. Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: A multi sample study. Journal ‐of organizational Behavior, 25(3), pp.293-315.

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

Welch, M. 2011 The evolution of the employee engagement concept: Communication implications, Corporate Communications: An International Journal. 16(4), pp.328-346.