Voice and its role in the understanding of an organizational issue or organizational practice.
Introduction
Voice is a major part of the communication process. The voice used affects the way an individual processes information. There are many different aspects of voice such as tone, and pitch(Scherer & Sander 2005). The following essay discusses the impact that using voice on employees possesses and the ways I which voice aids our understanding of the organizational practice and organizational issue.
Voice is defined as an active attempt to air out dissatisfaction and search for ways to resolve the dissatisfaction and advice changes (Bryant, 2006). It is when employees or consumers inform the high level of issues within the company that are making affecting them adversely. There are different levels of voice in a company. There is employee voice, managerial voice and consumer voice.
Employee voice refers to when employees air out complaints or highlight poor decision making skills in the organization. Consumer voice is a voice from the purchasers of a product or service. Consumer voice happens when things such as decreased production of a product come up or when the quality or quantity of a product decreases. The higher level voice is the voice of managers and the leaders of an organization. It is usually heard when the management wants to communicate something to their employees or consumers.
The voice useful to managers
Voice is useful to managers since it brings into their awareness the issues being faced by employees in the company. It enables them to recognize poor change strategies being used in the company and it enables them to recognize issues facing the company earlier than they would if employees were not allowed to voice their issues. Voice is also useful to the managers as it lets them know what the consumer expects from them. Consumer voice also lets the managers know of any complaints the consumer has. Once the manager is aware of the complaints a consumer has they can take the necessary strategies to rectify the problem. Listening to consumer needs allows the managers to provide products or services that are relevant to their consumers and therefore, increase their sales and profits.
Voice is often used by employees to signal dissatisfaction, to pinpoint poor decision making and to highlight poor change strategies in the organization.
Narrative theme analysis
Voice is a response to a certain change in the organization (Bryant, 2006). Voice in organizations can be assessed using narrative theme analysis (Bryant, 2006). In narrative theme analysis, employees are allowed to tell their stories and the recurrent themes in the different stories are picked and used to come up with a conclusion regarding the use of voice in the organization. More about voice and its use by managers and employees has been discussed in details in the paper.
Hirschman came up with a theory to how dissatisfied employees behave. He proposed that when an employee is dissatisfied they will do one of three things, either they will exit, voice or loyalty. Exit refers to when a dissatisfied employee leaves the organization while voice refers to when a dissatisfied employee voices their opinion or point of view to the managers(Hirschman 1980). Loyalty refers to when the employer remains in the organization but decreases their commitment. According to Hirschman, the choice the employee made depended on the loyalty the employee had to the company. The employee with low levels of loyalty will leave while an employee with high loyalty will voice their opinion(Hirschman 1980).
Organizational change refers to a change in the way of doing things in an organization(Anon n.d.). The change is usually perceived differently at the managerial level and the employee level. The managerial versions of organizational change are dominant while those versions of the employees are marginalized(Detert et al. 2013). Change is the only constant in this world and hence, at one point or another organizations experience changes. It is inevitable. No change indicates that the organization is not progressive.
Focusing on the perspectives of managers alone regarding change provides a narrow perspective into what the change is doing for the organization and how the change affects members of the organization(Raub & Robert 2012). To get a comprehensive view of the change in a company, it is essential that the perspective of employees on the change is also explored. Exploring the employee perspective allows for the modification of future organizational strategies for change(Lumby 2012).
Managerial voice and Constructivism
Managerial voice refers to the voice of the managers in an organization. As it was mentioned above there are three levels of voice, consumer, employee and managerial. Managerial voice refers to when the managers communicate to their consumers or employees. This usually happens when the mangers need to convey some information to the employees or consumers. For example the managers may want to let the employees of some changes that will take place in the company like if the company is bringing in new machineries the managers may let the employees know this prior so that those that want to apply for a training on using them can do so. The managerial voice can also be used to communicate to the consumers. For instance, the managers may want to let the consumers know of a certain product that is coming out, hence, they may organize a launch where they will speak more about the new product. This often happens in companies that deal with technological machines for example phones.
When employers respond to dissatisfaction by voicing their complaints this is known as a constructive response. Constructivism is an approach used in research that is open and takes into account the hypothesis of the researcher (Bryant, 2006). A constructive response is a response that builds the company or contributes to the advancement of an organization. It does so since it identifies issues that may cause problems in the company providing an opportunity to solve them.
Voice as destructive
The voice in a company is not always constructive. Destructive voice refers to voice that causes more harm than good in the company. For example, if an employee goes to air out his complaints to the media or a consumer does the same, which is destructive voice as it will ruin the reputation of the company. This is similar to the social media complaints individuals often make in company pages to notify them of some problem. To prevent instances of destructive voice from happening, a company should ensure that its consumers have a platform where they can express their complaints. Sometimes voice can have a negative effect. For example, some employees may voice things in a rude and disrespectable manner that may get them fired. Nonetheless, the benefits of voice far outweigh the disadvantages(Detert et al. 2013).
Voice as a tool of enhancing understanding of organizational practices and issues and examples of some issues
Voice helps one to understand organizational practice and organizational issues. Voice is used in different ways to aide in the understanding of organizational practice or organizational issues (Bryant, 2006). Some workers use voice by speaking directly to the managerial board regarding their opinions, response to change or issues. Other workers form or join employer boards or unions. Other employees voice their concerns to fellow employees(Garner & Garner 2011).
The method an employee uses to voice their concerns reflects a lot on the organizational practices (Bryant, 2006) . For example, an employee from an organization where they are allowed autonomy and where the managerial staff takes into account employee concerns, may go directly to the managers to voice their concerns(Howard-Grenville 2006). On the contrary, an employee who comes from a rigid company may prefer to join a trade union in order to express their concerns.
An employee who voices their concerns to fellow employees reflects on a company that is strict, rigid, non-autonomous and has no regard for other opinions (Bryant, 2006) . When an employee does not take further actions to try and ensure their concerns are addressed it could be possible that they abstain from doing so since pursuing them may lead to negative consequences for them such as getting fired, decreasing their chances of promotion or being bullied by the staff at higher hierarchies(Driver 2009).
Voice is aides in the understanding of an organizational issue since it is through voice that the issue is made known to the managers. In addition, it is through voice that an issue is discussed in unions, and it is also through voice that an employee may choose to talk to fellow employees regarding a particular organizational issue(Giauque 2015).
It has been proposed that most organizational issues related to organizational change result when the employees feel deprived of power(Bryant et al. 2006). For example when the organization makes large changes that affect the employees greatly without consulting them, the employees may feel that the company has taken their power from them. Thus, when employees voice opinions it is not that they are undermining managers but rather they want the power taken from them to be restored.
Voice aides the understanding of organizational practices since it is sometimes used to find out information about a change in the organization(Donaghey et al. 2011). Voice is not only used to air out complaints but is also used to derive more information about an ongoing change in an organization (Bryant, 2006). When feedback regarding the change is given back to the employees, the employees gain a better understanding of the organizational practice(Park & Cameron 2014).
Sometimes employers fail to give employees sufficient information on issues such as job security, medical covers, and the employees use voice to gain more information regarding the issues hence gaining more information on organizational practices(Slapin 2009).
Another way in which voice enhances the understanding of the practices of an organization is through clarification(Pesse 2007). By using voice, employees can seek clarification for abstract matters. For examples, employees who are having trouble finding out under which circumstances the company offers scholarships for its employees for further studies can ask the management about it and if they have an opinion to give regarding the matter give it.
Voice can be used to detect a communication problem in the organization between the managers and the employees. The issue can be depicted from the strategies used to voice or if there is the presence of any voice at all. Companies that are silenced meaning the employees never voice their opinions represents a problem(Blackman & Sadler-Smith 2009). It could be possible that the employees are so afraid of retribution that they fail to air the voices all the same. This will mean that even when there is a crisis in the organization, the employees may fail to let the managing staff know.
When employees voice issues even if they ae based on an individual rather than collective interest, the manager gains insight on issues that may lead to lowered productivity and has a chance to resolve them before they become prominent enough to affect the company. It also enables the leader to gain insight on what type of employees are in the organization and thereby, determine the best way to increase their motivation.
When workers voice things to co-workers, it may show a detrimental organizational practice. When co-workers discuss issues amongst themselves the lack boundaries and limits that they would have had had they addressed the matter directly to the boss(Garner 2014). As such, the co-workers may escalate the issue and insight each other while the issue could have been solved easily had they brought it up with their leader. Therefore, it is essential that the management of an organization observe the patterns of voicing amongst the employees in the organization to learn more about the organizational practice employees have adopted.
The tone of the voice or rather, how the voice is conveyed, loud or low voice, tone, pitch can be used to understand more about the work environment(Dahlhaus et al. 2010). If employees often voice their opinions, calmly it may signify good communication patterns between employees and employers and above average employee satisfaction.
Voice in an organization can be used to voice complaints(Henderson et al. 2014). For example, when clients are dissatisfied with the services or quality of goods provided to them, they may make complaints about the services. When employees voice their concerns, they may aid in identifying malpractice that may be occurring in the firm(Garner 2014). Voicing concerns by employees also allow for the identification of problems in the change process, and it can also be used to detect worker dissatisfaction within the organization. It can also be used to expose poor decision making by under-informed managerial staff(Barnes et al. 2013).
Often managers view the use of voice by employees especially about organizational change as a form of rebellion or resistance(Gollan & Patmore 2013). For example, an employee may voice his or her opinion regarding the organizational change that differs from the manager's perspective. The manager may make the feel as if the employee is simply refusing to comply with the change. Regardless of this perspective of the voice of employees to managers, voice is an important way and one of the most effective ways in which employees can communicate messages to the upper hierarchies in the organization regarding issues existing in the organization(Markey & Townsend 2013).
Resistance has nothing to do with voice. Resistance refers to when employees deliberately attempt to slow down the process of change thus increasing the organizational costs or deliberate attempts to maintain previous organizational functioning and stop the change implementation in the organization (Bryant, 2006). When managers view voice as resistance to change, this already presents a managerial issue in the perspective of the higher hierarchies of the organization(Buttigieg et al. 2013). It presents an issue since every organization requires effective communication between all members of the organization regardless of hierarchy. Also, it is necessary that all opinions in the organization are considered and not merely dismissed simply because they come from the employee(Harlos 2001). Employees form the majority of the people in an organization and therefore, their voice is key in the understanding of practices of the organization and organizational issues.
When voice is used in an organization, it is usually in an attempt to make the workplace a better place for each and every individual. When people within the organization voice their concerns, chances are they are identifying a problem in the functioning of the system that is hurting some of the organizational members, or they are pinpointing an area of improvement(Hausknecht & Trevor 2011). For instance, when employees feel that the human resource manager is too harsh and exploitative of them they may take this issue to the senior managers.
A harsh an exploitative human resource manager means that the employees are under extra pressure and thus may be underproductive due to harsh working conditions. If the voiced concerns are met, either the human resource manager will be fired, or he or she will need to change. The change of the human resource manager who was previously an issue in the organization will lead to increased productivity in the job since employees will no longer be mistreated by the human resource manager (Bryant, 2006).
The way an organizational management responds to voice in an organization reflects the organization practices and values(Huang & Paterson 2014). For instance, if a member of the organizational staff voices his or her grievances and the managerial members of the organization to which the grievance was voiced view this as a threat to their status quo, it shows that there is poor communication and poor understanding within the organization. It shows that the organization members do not hold the same values, and this is a problem.
For a company to maximize its performance, it is essential that the members hold the same values in reference to the organization (Janssen & Gao 2013). Holding the same values means that the organizational managers and employees are working towards achieving the same vision and creates an organizational culture that promotes a harmonious relationship between all members of the organization(Pesse 2007).
Voice can be used to observe organization practice in how the heads of the organization respond to criticism(Slapin 2009). For example, an employee may voice his or her opinion regarding performance lapses in the managerial level. In this case, depending on the organizational practice and the values the managers may do two things. Firstly they may shut down the employee and threaten them or refrain from promoting the employee and sometimes even make them resign depending on how major the performance lapse is.
The company that shuns the employee represents the organizational practice of bullying and lack of cohesion. It is important to note that voice does not only refer to how the employees’ state issues to their employers but also refers to how the employers respond to their employees(Gossett & Kilker 2006).
Organizations are places where there are different people from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, education backgrounds ad race(Broadfoot 2007). Therefore, it is safe to say that opinions will defer since these individuals are different. Sometimes the opinions of employee's differ for those of the managerial staff, but this does not mean that they are negative ( Bryant, 2006).
Managers who learn to embrace the different opinions voiced in their organizations have an added advantage as compared to those who view it as a form of resistance (Bryant, 2006). Such managers can detect and solve problems when they are at their early stages and solve them before they become key issues in the company(Blackman & Sadler-Smith 2009). They are also able to incorporate employee opinions in the organization that is an organizational practice that motivates the employees and makes them feel valued and accepted which increases productivity in the long run(Tacchi 2012).
Conclusion
In conclusion, different company, organization and industry leaders have different opinions on the aspect of voice. Some view it as a form of resistance and rebellion and highly discourage it. In fact in some companies employees are not allowed to voice and doing so can lead to the loss of the job. Such companies tend to have a dictatorial form of leadership whereby what the leader says is final. Other leaders on the other side readily welcome voice from their employees and use it to make improvements that will grow the organization. Such companies and organizations tend to outperform those that do not embrace voice since they interact with their employees and ideas are shared.
It is important that employees are allowed to voice matters. It increases motivation and autonomy. Moreover, it builds good communication in the organization between subordinates and their leaders. In the long-term, it increases employee performance and the productivity of the company.
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