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Worker Voice, Managerial Response and Labour Productivity: An Empirical Investigation
Abstract
This article investigates the relationship between worker voice practices, employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness and labour productivity. It argues that managerial responsiveness is a critical but under-investigated variable in the study of the relationship between worker voice, human resource management and performance. Our results suggest that managerial responsiveness to worker voice does lead to superior labour productivity. However, this relationship is only found in non-union workplaces and there is little relationship between formal voice regime and productivity. One important implication of this finding is that more responsive management will result in improved productivity, so policy interventions should focus on how to motivate managers to become more responsive to their employees.
... Social dialogue can also ensure industrial democracy in garment supplier factories (Reinecke and Donaghey, 2021). Worker voices through social dialogue are also useful in increasing efficiency, productivity, product quality and flexibility Latif et al., CPOIB 2021;Bryson et al., 2006). Given that numerous stakeholders have emphasized the importance and necessity of a decent work environment in the upstream segment of the global garment value chain, there is a pressing need for worker voices to be heard in garment supplier factories. ...
... Given that numerous stakeholders have emphasized the importance and necessity of a decent work environment in the upstream segment of the global garment value chain, there is a pressing need for worker voices to be heard in garment supplier factories. This is because worker voices are an essential component of decent work conditions (Christ et al., 2020;Hoque and Rana, 2020;Soundararajan et al., 2018;Bryson et al., 2006). However, despite being crucial players in the global garment value chain, garment suppliers are not always receptive and supportive of avenues for worker voice-raising, such as labour unions. ...
... Social dialogue has been proven significant in ensuring worker voices Kuruvilla, 2006). A fundamental pillar is providing a decent working environment with workers' freedom of speech in any organization (Sultana et al., 2020;Bryson et al., 2006). L evesque et al. (2018) stated that establishing dialogues between management and worker representatives is significant and beneficial for any firm. ...
This study aims to explore how multinational lead buyers can play an active role in ensuring worker voices in garment supplier factories where workers have limited space to raise their voices, and how buyers' involvement increases the possibilities of worker voices mitigating barriers to social dialogues and enhancing mutual interests of buyers and workers in garment factories. Using a qualitative research approach and multiple embedded case study method, this study considered buyer-supplier dyads as the unit of analysis, i.e. two multinational lead buyers and their four corresponding suppliers in the garment industry of Bangladesh. Focus group discussion and key informant in-depth interviews were techniques applied to collect factory-level data, and within and cross-case analysis techniques were applied to develop an overall understanding. The results of this study reveal that the opportunities for workers to voice their concerns through social dialogue in garment supplier factories are limited due to various obstacles. Similarly, the role of multinational lead buyers in addressing these issues is found to be less than ideal. This study also shows that buyers can take short-term and long-term initiatives to ensure social dialogues. Moreover, this study presents how social dialogues can meet the expectations of multinational buyers and their garment suppliers. While this study focuses exclusively on the garment industry, similar scenarios also exist across a multitude of other industries. Thus, future research could extend this study's scope to various sectors, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the general state of worker voices in Bangladesh. This study stands to make significant contributions to literature in the fields of global value chains, human relations and international business. It will pose critical perspectives on how
upstream value chain suppliers can fortify worker rights through social dialogue, and elucidate the means and motives for lead buyers to play a more active role in this endeavour.
... According to some, managerial responsiveness-which is defined as the degree to which management responds to employees' wants and concerns in an effective and efficient manner-is the crucial component lacking from successful employee development (Bryson et al., 2006). Most of the literature on management responsiveness has concentrated on the connections between managerial responsiveness and organizational performance, climate, commitment, employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and highperformance work systems (Dundon et al., 2004;Boxall and Purcell 2011). ...
... The administrative response variable serves as a mediator between the voice of employees and the performance of human resources, and the administrative response to the voice of employees leads to high productivity. The study by Bryson et al. (2006) exploring the role of the administrative response in the relationship between the practices of the voices of employees and the productivity of work came to the conclusion that there is no relationship between the of Hence, management that is more receptive to employee feedback has high productivity, so it's important to concentrate on finding ways to inspire managers to do the same.The study of Park and Kim (2016) provided strong empirical evidence for the impact of culture on the behaviors resulting from taking the employee's voice into account through its application on (198) individuals working in the auto industry, and concluded that cultural values such as (avoid conflict) guide and predict The employee's behavior when his or her voice is taken into account. ...
... The management's attitude toward the workers' voice greatly affects the quality of interactions between the company and its personnel. The administration that is strict in hearing the voices of the workers causes tension in relations with them, in contrast to the administration that shows its administrative response to the voice of the workers, which generates moderate and cooperative behaviors (Bryson et al., 2006). The management's capacity to manage the information it utilizes to make choices decreases as a result of inadequate and insufficient managerial responsiveness. ...
... . Although several studies have shown positive associations between voice and employee performance (e.g., Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006;Chen & Hou, 2016;Ng & Feldman, 2012;Whiting, Podsakoff, & Pierce, 2008), other studies report negative associations (e.g., Hung et al., 2012;Seibert, Kraimer, & Crant, 2001). One possible reason for these mixed findings is that extant research has largely focused on the amount of voice, thereby ignoring the types of messages and information delivered by voice. ...
... However, scholars have not yet reached a consensus. Studies have found positive (e.g., Bryson et al., 2006;Whiting et al., 2008) or negative (e.g., Hung et al., 2012;Seibert et al., 2001) relationships between voice and employee performance. The types of voice may account for this inconsistency because previous research has largely focused on the amount of voice while ignoring its different types (Morrison, 2011). ...
... Note that the existing findings on voice and individual performance are mixed (Bashshur & Oc, 2015;Kim et al., 2010). Given its constructive nature, voice is believed to be positively linked to individual performance (e.g., Bryson et al., 2006;Chen & Hou, 2016). However, Hung et al. (2012) and Seibert et al. (2001) documented a negative relationship. ...
Increased attention has been paid to research on the outcomes of voice. However, the existing findings on the relationship between voice and employee performance are inconclusive. To address the insufficient understanding of the voice–employee performance relationship, this study proposed a model that specifies the relationships between two types of voice (i.e., promotive and prohibitive) and employee performance along with the moderating role of power distance orientation. The results of the analysis of a sample in China that comprised 80 leaders and 431 employees showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between promotive voice and employee performance and a positive linear relationship between prohibitive voice and employee performance. Power distance orientation was found to significantly moderate the nonlinear and linear relationships. Specifically, the inverted U-shaped relationship was more pronounced, while the positive linear relationship was weaker among employees with high power distance orientation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed, along with the limitations of this study and future research directions.
... With the development of emotion recognition technology, collecting multimodal indicators such as physiological and behavioral data, combined with statistical analysis, machine learning, and deep learning techniques, to identify features that differentiate depression patients from healthy individuals has become a research focus for many scholars. Common physiological signals include EEG [4], MRI [5], and neuroimaging [6]; common behavioral signals include eye movement [7], gait [8], speech [9], and facial expressions [10]. Compared to other physiological and behavioral signals, facial expressions have advantages such as being non-intrusive, easy to obtain, and low-cost in the collection process. ...
... Re Im =+ (9) (2) Feature Dimensionality Reduction: The feature dimensions extracted by Gabor wavelet transform are generally high. As shown in formulas (7) and (8), we use Gabor filters with 8 orientations and 5 scales, resulting in 40 transformed images; this leads to a high feature dimension (concatenation of 40 image features). ...
... While inclusive behavior can be considered as mutual and involving all members of an organization, existing literature has emphasized the efficacy of managers' behavior to establish equal and fair opportunities to participate (Shore et al., 2011. For instance, literature on inclusive leadership (Korkmaz et al., 2022;Nembhard & Edmondson, 2006;Randel et al., 2018), and at the organizational level, studies on climate of inclusion (Nishii, 2013), inclusive organization and voice climate (Frazier & Bowler,201) revealed positive effects of open, supportive, and communicative supervisor behavior (Bryson et al., 2006;Guzman & Espejo, 2018;Holland et al., 2017;Liao et al., 2021) on employees' voice behavior, and the perception and experiences of inclusion. Examining formal and informal participation activities, Townsend et al. (2012) identified key shortcomings of formal channels, and concluded that informal participative activities like direct supervisor-employee conversations could better help to address employees' concerns and solve everyday tensions. ...
... However, along with managers' responsibility to create inclusive conditions (Nishii, 2013;Shore et al., 2018) goes the dominant perspective within participation and voice literature (Morrison, 2011;Wilkinson et al., 2010), considering managers as the powerful actors who have the right to choose to which degree employees and their interests get included (Heller, 2003;Timming, 2015;Wilson et al., 2011). In this perspective, participation is seen as trade-off for managers if they let employees raise their voice (Harrison & Freeman, 2004;Wilson et al., 2010): they risk to share power (Heller, 2003), but potentially gain organizational benefits when employees contribute to improvements in work organization, quality, and productivity (Bryson et al., 2006). Managers can decide on the degree of participation reaching from information to consultation, and inclusion in decision-making (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). ...
Purpose. The main purpose of this article is to present two opposing paradigms of management – economic and humanistic – and to indicate the sources and consequences of their dissimilarities. Methodology. This article is conceptual in nature. It is based on a literature review. During the research, a comparative analysis was carried out to sort out the differences in the definitions of labour in economics and sociology. Findings. Economics and sociology have different understanding of labour. This difference is significant and gives birth to two opposing paradigms of HRM management. The dominant paradigm is the economic one, which does not take into account the humanistic nature of man. Therefore, an integrative model of management, including social theory of labour, is needed. Research limitation and directions for future research. The article presents work in its historical aspect. It does not show how the pandemic contributes to the concept of work and changes it. Investigating whether remote work is the next step in the evolution of the concept of work might indicate the direction of future research. Practical implications. The integrative approach ensures employees the achievement of material (financial) well-being and social well-being (social relations based on respect for dignity). This could prevent negative organizational behaviour such as mobbing or work-related phenomena such as occupational burnouts. Originality/value. The paper is a conceptual article investigating how the notions of labour in economics and sociology influence the economic and humanistic paradigm of management. It also makes an original contribution regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HRM methods. Keywords: labour, economic/non-economic action, economic/humanistic HRM
... In all four models, an employee representative is part of a "system in a company for managers to take into account employees' opinions, wishes, etc. in managing the company" [65]. As such, employee representatives can be considered an extension of HRM [66]. All models integrate employees' concerns to varying degrees, but regulate their level of influence. ...
... Corporate governance encompasses the management of an organization for the goodwill of all entrepreneurial stakeholders [77] and is strongly associated with CSR. In this context, employees are given a "voice", which is usually delegated to works councils, who serve as the employees' mouthpiece [66,78,79]. The appointment of a representative group that serves employees' interests increases the participation of employees in entrepreneurial decisions, thus positively influencing the relationship between employers and employees [80,81]. ...
This article examines the role of employee representatives, who support HRM in positioning itself and the organization as “socially responsible”. Based on a constructivist understanding of organizational communication, employee representatives are examined as previously unrecognized entities that are responsible—and also essential—for guaranteeing a good working life, which also originates through communication. The article provides an overview of existing studies on employee representatives and their positions in companies and tries to bridge the gaps among organizational communication, CSR communication, and management theory by redesigning the role of employee representatives—who have received limited academic attention to date—as communicators. The insights from an international comparative study confirm that employee representatives perceive themselves not only as a “grief box” or “control body” of management, but also as a responsible agent and “medium” for the realization of social and communicative sustainability. This not only opens up new research perspectives, but also highlights the need to conceptually deal and theoretically discuss employee representatives and their roles in internal communication processes from the perspectives of organizational communication, HRM, CSR, and sustainability.
... External economic pressure is likely to require the workplace to reconfigure its resources and adjust to the changing environment (Wright & Snell, 1998). The use of direct voice practices (which are a key part of HRM practices) can increase the speed of decision making and the extent to which managers involve employees under time pressure (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006). During times of crisis, HRM practices may make managers more responsive to employees' needs (Boxall & Winterton, 2018) and may engender a paternalistic concern for employees' welfare (Cullinane & Dundon, 2014). ...
... Consistent with prior literature (Bryson et al., 2006;Willman, Bryson, & Gomez, 2007), Table S2 shows that our main predictor variables (i.e., union voice and HRM practices) are relatively stable over time. Therefore, we applied our panel regressions to the absolute levels rather than changes in the independent and dependent variables. ...
Sociological debates on financialisation emphasise that workplace‐based productivity bargains between employers and employees are often precarious. This literature suggests that where employers are unable to keep their side of the bargain, participative arrangements with employees are likely to become unsustainable in generating high workplace performance. Recessions substantially increase the pressures on employers to breach (unwritten and invisible) implicit bargains with employees. We propose that a robust (rather than shallow) implementation of union voice and Human Resource Management (HRM) practices will make implicit bargains more resilient and benefit workplace performance if recession impact is high. Using two waves of the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (2004 and 2011), we examine our hypotheses in the context of the deep 2008–2009 recession and find supportive evidence – especially in (a) firms without a dominant individual or family owner and (b) growing markets.
... Researchers emphasized that although organizational voice can be considered an authoritative source of organization and workers can know many concerns and problems related to the organization, they are generally unwilling to speak up (Bowen & Blackman, 2003), and many organizations face this conflict. There are several studies about the relationship between organizational voice and some job and life-related factors such as loyalty (Hoffman & Lowitt, 2008), organizational commitment (Pradhan et al., 2016), job satisfaction (Koyuncu et al., 2013;Settles et al., 2007), productivity (Bryson et al., 2006), cultural norms, and support of other people (Bowen & Blackmon, 2003;Kwon & Farndale, 2020;Yee et al., 2018), and engagement (Koyuncu et al., 2013). Employee silence is exceptionally detrimental to organizations, often causing an "escalating level of dissatisfaction" among employees, "which manifests itself in absenteeism and turnover and perhaps other undesired behaviors" (Colquitt & Greenberg, 2003). ...
... The work-life conflict affects many attitudes and factors as job stress (Losoncz & Bortolotto, 2009), performance and absenteeism (Siegel et al., 2005), organizational commitment (Pradhan et al., 2016), job and life satisfaction (Erdogan et al., 2012), quality of life (Greenhaus et al., 2012;, productivity (Bryson et al., 2006), organizational citizenship and happiness (Erdogan et al., 2012) and intention for leaving the job (Koyuncu et al., 2012). The organizational voice is likely an attitude that can occur in the work-life and whether there is a relationship between work-life conflict and organizational voice or not has been previously studied. ...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between work-life conflict
(WLB) and organizational voice in the higher education sector. We surveyed a
population of academicians and administrative staff of two private universities in
Istanbul, Turkey. We found that there is a positive relationship between life-work
conflict and work-life conflict. The work-life conflict also affects organizational voice
negatively. Results reveal that when employees have conflict in their work and life
affairs, they prefer to be silent rather than speak up openly about organizational
policies. This paper explores the importance of the work-life conflict in regards to
remaining silent as a means of creating productive workplaces. This study is an
attempt to contribute to the arguments on the situation about how people can
remain silent or speak up in the workplace when they are not able to achieve balance
work and living domains. This paper investigates the relationship between work-life
conflict and organizational voice as perceived by the employees from the higher
education sector
... Voice systems, however, can also fail and lead to negative outcomes, such as disillusion, marginalisation, frustration and dissatisfaction among employees (Dundon et al., 2004;Harlos, 2001). Outcomes perceived at the employee level can translate into outcomes at group or organisational level, including positive or negative effects on, for example, performance, turnover or commitment (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006;Farndale, van Ruiten, Kelliher, & Hope-Hailey, 2011;Morrison, 2011Morrison, , 2014. Understanding the antecedents and consequences of voice outcomes from the view of employees is thus vital from an Human Resource Management (HRM) perspective. ...
... Extant research on voice suggests that managerial behaviour and reactions to voice are central for explaining employee voice behaviour (Burris, 2012;Burris et al., 2013;Detert & Treviño, 2010;Farndale et al., 2011). When employees perceive managers reacting to their inputs, for example, by endorsing their ideas or by advocating them to higher levels of management (Burris, 2012) this demonstrates employees the effectiveness of their voice (Bryson et al., 2006;Morrison, 2011)-an outcome encouraging them to speak up (Burris, 2012;Burris et al., 2013). The absence of managerial reactions, in contrast, for example, when employees perceive that their ideas and concerns fall on deaf ears, or challenging management's objectives and practices is punished (Burris, 2012), discourages employees to speak up (Dundon et al., 2004;Harlos, 2001). ...
We apply an affordance lens on qualitative data from three case organisations using a digital voice channel providing employees with the opportunity to speak up via answering periodic mini‐surveys and making comments in an anonymous mini‐forum. We find that imbrications of material and social agencies (i.e., the voice channel's features and managerial reactions to voice) in the respective organisational contexts culminate in employees perceiving the channel as either affording or constraining voice, leading to perceived voice outcomes that eventually encourage or discourage them to speak up. Whether voice is encouraged or discouraged partly results from the mere interaction between employees and the digital voice channel independent of managerial reactions. Our findings thus challenge the emphasis on managerial behaviour and reactions to voice in explaining voice behaviour and outcomes in extant literature.
... Workers want more power and representation at work and a lack of union presence is associated with workers' vulnerability to reprisal (Camfield, 2011;Kochan et al., 2019). Differences between the influence workers have in addressing workplace issues and the influence they want can be understood as a representation or participation gap (Freeman and Rogers, 2006;Kochan, et al., 2019;Bryson, 2006). Formal representations of worker voice are captured by EQ-IL's union coverage and union representation gap questions. ...
... to measure perceived productivity, the Ko and choi (2019) instrument was used using three items: (a) general productivity of employees, (b) efficiency of the work process, and (c) competitiveness of the process through costs reduction. Other studies have used perceived work productivity on the basis that it is a valid and reliable measure (ahmad & allen, 2015;Bryson et al., 2006;goodhue & thompson, 1995). For the digitalization variable, an instrument of eight indicators used by sánchez et al. (2022) in order to include the Post cOViD 19 effects in the measurement instrument, which contains items related to the importance of digitalization, Digital transformation strategies, the opportunities promoted by digital technologies, the tools for business digitalization, innovation capabilities, corporate culture regarding digital concepts, the level of employee commitment to the function performed, and teleworking. ...
The purpose of this research was to study the impact of human factor management on company productivity, with digitalization as a moderating variable, with emphasis on medium and large companies in the services sector, in Lima, Peru. This research has a quantitative approach and cross-sectional design. The technique used was structural equation modeling with the maximum likelihood estimation method. The study was carried out with a sample of 330 people from the banking sector in the city of Lima, in Peru. For statistical analysis, Confirmatory Factorial Analysis, and hypothesis testings, the SPPS AMOS tool was used. A conceptual model based on Dynamic Capability View theory was developed that allows us to better understand the phenomenon of the impact of human factor management on the productivity of companies, under the moderating effect of digitalization. As the main conclusions of this research, it was found that there is a positive relationship between the human factor management and the company productivity; likewise, it was found that digitalization has a moderating effect in the relationship between human factor management and productivity, with the exception of the human factor performance appraisal. These findings contribute to the existing literature and debate, as well as, allow to determine which dimensions of human factor management can be enhanced under the impact of a digital environment, thus contributing better to business performance.
... One early exception concerns the UK, where a large national survey (Workplace Employment Relations Study) was held among managers and workers six times between 1980 and 2011, including an abundance of information concerning mutual relations between employee representatives and managers. A relevant study based on these data is Bryson et al. (2006), who write 'There is a wealth of qualitative evidence on the processes of industrial relations . . . , which suggests that the character of voice practices is critically influenced by the ways in which management treat the workforce' (p. ...
Researchers still struggle with unravelling the internal interaction processes between management and employees (and their representatives). In empirical studies explaining the effects of works councils, the multidimensional nature of the works council-management team relationship is therefore largely ignored. By utilising a unique questionnaire among works councillors, this article examines the (potential) inner workings of this black box, by developing a construct aimed to capture the essence of these forms of social interaction. The authors find that behavioural aspects of cooperation, power, communication, goal sharing and trust significantly affect the relationship between works council and management. The authors also test their construct via a model that seeks to explain the influence of works councils on company decision-making. Their results indicate that despite a few noticeable crosscountry differences, their black box construct
... ( Anyango et al., 2015;Budd, 2004;Bryson et al., 2006;Benson & Brown, 2010;Greenwell et al., 2008;Park & Kim. 2016;Torrington et al., 2011 .) ...
... However, these results must be interpreted with caution, given the cross-sectional nature of the data. In fact, it appears that employee perception of managerial responsiveness to worker voice leads to superior productivity in the UK (Bryson et al. 2006). In France, the research of Coutrot (1996) and Laroche (2004) also shows contrasting results. ...
... Edmonson, 2019). It requires companies to promote direct participation and employee involvement (Bryson et al. 2006;Cludts 1999;Kaler 1999;Marchington and Wilkinson 2000). More important, however, is that employees are listened to and their messages taken into account. ...
The concepts of love and business do not seem to match very well, despite attempts to operationalize love as agape or neighborly love. In line with the emerging literature, this contribution uses a profane and analytical approach to agape as an ‘Agenda for Growth and Affirmation of People and the Environment’. Within this agenda we define agape as ‘the commitment to the well-being and flourishing of others’ and operationalized it to measure the concept in a substantial sample of 420 medium-sized and large companies in The Netherlands. At the core of the research lies the question whether and to what extent companies, represented by senior managers and members of the works council, are committed to the well-being of their employees. This article analyses the concept of agape and its application in a business context and presents the results of a survey. The results show that, on average, respondents report that their organization is committed to employees’ well-being in line with the organization’s values. Though not the aim of agape, since organizations that apply the concept reap tangible business benefits from it, the concept becomes suitable to a wider range of businesses.
... Voice can be either informal where ideas or concerns are casually expressed (chat, casual meetings, handwritten notes, etc.) or formal where a structured approach is followed (Klaas et al., 2012;Wilkinson et al., 2018). Voice mechanisms give employees the opportunity to express opinions and concerns and to influence managerial decisions (Bryson et al., 2006;Dundon et al., 2004) leading to positive workplace outcomes, such as greater employee commitment, employee-employer relations and enhanced organizational performance (Bai et al., 2019;Rees et al., 2013). ...
This article explores employee voice within organizations, in the context of the often-complex inclusion of sexual and gender minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI)) employees. This study utilized a qualitative case study approach to gather insights from diversity experts and organizational documents of three large Australian organizations representing private, not-for-profit and public sectors. This research focused on organizational interventions that capture the voices of LGBTI employees, because their voice remains a challenge. While extant literature has largely focused on employee networks as a primary voice for this group, this study identifies several other integral and novel mechanisms. This study contributes to existing knowledge by developing an empirically based theory on voice mechanisms to overcome the spirals of silence. The findings of this study offer practical value to organizations seeking to promote LGBTI voice and inclusion in the workplace.
JEL Classification: J15, J16, J71, J81, M12, M14, O15
... In this case, structurally, the board can benefit from a consultation committee with key stakeholders involved in team production. In practice, there are examples of consultation committees involving team-based stakeholders such as workers (Bryson et al., 2006) and suppliers (Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000). These committees reduce ex-ante costs when problems are ill-defined because they bring specialized information from key stakeholders, which facilitates the process of problem formulation (Baer et al., 2013;Harrison et al., 2010). ...
... Considering the above, this paper attempts to proffer solutions to the problem of poor labour-management relations in order to increase workers" productivity and minimize cases of perennial industrial conflicts which has been the bane of Nigeria industrial relations system. Freeman and Medoff (1984) as quoted by Bryson, et al. (2006) argue that "union voice can be productivityenhancing where voice costs are lower than the costs of dissatisfied workers quitting, and where lower quit rates encourage firms to invest in human capital resulting in a more productive workforce. Union voice may also provide management with information that improves the quality of decisionmaking". ...
This paper looked at industrial democracy as a form of relationship between labour and management that will ensure high productivity and reduce industrial conflicts. Labour and management are always seen to be perpetually opposed to each other in their views on major managerial and labour issues. Poor labour-management relations in Nigeria industrial relations system has accounted for consistent industrial conflicts which has led to low productivity among workers and stunted economic development of the country. Industrial democracy is recommended as a way to foster unity between labour and management to guarantee higher productivity and guarantee industrial peace among workers and thereby ensure increase in the country per-capital income and general economic development of the country.
... Also in Germany, direct employee participation adopted in many manufacturing and service sector enterprises (quality circles, teamwork) is not regulated by law but is added to the co-determination system (Müller-Jentsch, 2016). From the perspective of management, it is assumed that direct participation has positive effects on employees' loyalty and commitment to the organization, and on productivity by encouraging better teamwork and optimizing work-processes by using ideas and insights from workers (Bryson, Charlwood & Forth, 2006;De Spiegelaere & Van Guyes, 2015;Wilkinson & Fay, 2010). From the workers' perspective, it is assumed that direct participation has positive effects on intrinsic motivational factors, such as commitment, job-satisfaction, competences, team co-operations and giving meaning to work (De Spiegelaere & Van Guyes, 2015). ...
Companies in the Netherlands have started to experiment with new forms of employee participation, mostly as a response to problems and limitations with the functioning of works councils. In this article, thirteen case studies are analysed which study the innovation processes renewing structures and forms of employee participation in companies in private and public sectors. New hybrid forms between representative and direct participation have been launched, in which elected members of works councils cooperate with non-member employees, mostly on temporary projects. These initiatives show successful results in mobilizing workers involvements, and in improving efficiency and effectiveness in consultations with management. At the same time, however, works councils have compromised on lowering the number of seats on their councils, leading to dilemmas around questions of formal powers and coordination. Furthermore, these experiments show limitations in their scope. Firstly, they hardly address more effective inclusion of the many (younger) workers with flexible contracts in employee participation schemes, nor the broader potential impacts on companies' strategic decision-making. It can be concluded that innovations seem to develop within the confines of the traditional characteristics of Dutch industrial relations, such as cooperative relationships between works councils and management, a low level of interventions from trade unions and a focus on the field of operational management (rather than on conflictual workers interests and strategic issues). Nevertheless, modernization seems to lead to a model with smaller representative participation and more coordinating functions in new forms of direct participation.
... Dundon et al., 2004;Wilkinson et al., 2014), le determinanti, le forme che può assumere e le relative conseguenze (es. Bryson, 2004Bryson, , 2006Brewster et al., 2007;Willman et al., 2009;Kaufman, 2015), la relazione con i risultati individuali e organizzativi (es. Freeman e Medoff, 1984;Pyman et al., 2006;Royer et al., 2008;Kim et al., 2010;Deery et al., 2014), il ruolo del contesto istituzionale e organizzativo nell'influenzarne l'adozione e i suoi effetti in diversi paesi (es. ...
Questo studio contribuisce al dibattito sul coinvolgimento dei dipendenti nelle decisioni che riguardano il loro lavoro e l'organizzazione. In particolare, lo studio analizza la relazione tra i meccanismi di employee voice e i risultati aziendali, e come essa vari al modificarsi del livello di capitale umano impiegato dall'organizzazione. L'analisi dei dati relativi a 168 imprese italiane dell'indagine Cranet (2015) mostra che sia i meccanismi di employee voice, sia i livelli di capita-le umano hanno una relazione positiva e significativa con i risultati aziendali. Inol-tre, l'analisi mostra che le performance organizzative migliori si hanno nelle azien-de che combinano elevati livelli di employee voice con una forza lavoro caratte-rizzata da alto capitale umano. Lo studio supporta quindi l'esistenza di una rela-zione di complementarità tra il coinvolgimento dei dipendenti nelle decisioni aziendali e lo sviluppo di pratiche volte a incrementare il capitale umano. Questi risultati offrono importanti implicazioni teoriche e pratiche al dibattito sulla com-petitività delle organizzazioni moderne e suggeriscono alcune importanti direzioni di ricerca futura.
... The focus in these studies is the institutions that enable and constrain union efforts to improve working conditions. In the United Kingdom, Bryson et al. (2006) find that employee perception of managerial responsiveness to worker voice leads to superior productivity. In France, Coutrot (1996) shows that firms with at least one union delegate in the workplace are more productive than other firms. ...
What is the role of collective agreements in explaining how unions affect firm-level productivity? Using matched employer–employee panel data for the Norwegian labour market, comprising almost 21 million individual-year observations in the period 2002–2018, we find that the presence of a collective agreement in a firm is associated with higher productivity. Without a collective agreement, higher union density is estimated to reduce productivity. However, if a collective agreement is implemented in the firm, not only is the estimated negative effect reduced—in some cases it becomes positive. This result remains significant, numerically and statistically, across several model specifications and different estimation methods. In particular, we provide a new source of exogenous variation in union memberships by utilizing information on intergenerational transmission of union preferences. Besides regulating terms and conditions for wage formation and working hours, collective agreements have a profound impact on how firms organize and formally recognize the voice of workers. In this regard, our finding supports the conclusion of Freeman and Medoff that the quality of institutional systems is crucial to understand what unions do to productivity.
... A related literature has explored whether HRM practices, specifically knowledge sharing and face-to-face communication, influence firm performance and productivity (e.g.Bryson et al., 2006;Salis and Williams, 2010). ...
This paper uses a novel firm level data set to investigate the impact of a unique quality management practice on the production and productivity of a large-scale garments manufacturer in Pakistan. The analysis provides evidence that production complexity is an important element in determining the impact of management practices, as there are sizeable differences in the effects between complex and basic lines of assembly. Most specifications show that the implementation of the new quality management practice has a negative impact on lines at the extreme ends of the complexity spectrum, while conversely it has a positive impact on those basic lines which exhibit the highest levels of complexity. We find evidence consistent with a quantity-quality trade off, in that whilst the implementation of the new management practice generally adversely impacted upon productivity it had the desired effect of reducing the number of daily quality defects observed after the intervention.
... As such, EV is defined as "opportunities for employees to have a say and potentially influence organisational affairs relating to issues that affect their work and the interests of managers and owners" (Wilkinson et al., 2014, p. 5). EV is a two-way communication used by employees and managers to convey ideas and feelings about issues and opportunities that directly or indirectly affect some important organisational outcomes (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006). Voices are occured as results of employees' social citizenship behavior, disappointment, and problemsolving purposes. ...
This study aimed to understand forms of employee voice (EV) practices in the workplace of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ho Chi Minh city. Also, it investigated how EV to be involved in managers’ decision-making process. The study employed a quantitative approach with a survey of 210 respondents. Statistical descriptive analysis were used to analyse the data. Findings showed that voice mechanism was existed in the workplace of SMEs in Ho Chi Minh city. Voice happened through both formal and informal platforms and was expressed directly to line and top managers. In addition, there was lack of indirect voice in the workplace this is because the Union might not be existed in SMEs as their small sizes and family enterprises. Though EV practices were existed in the workplace, employees did not perceive their voices were heard. It would suggest that EV should be considered as an essential aspect of management practices in SMEs since it could encourage innovation and creativity.
... Finally, most EV studies (including those on large firms) focus on productivity or profitability as the expected outcomes of EV mechanisms (e.g. Bryson, Charlwood and Forth, 2006;Freeman and Medoff, 1984;Kim, MacDuffie and Pil, 2010). However, EV's influence may be stronger on other important outcomes such as innovation, which is a key driver of SME survival in dynamic competitive environments (Curado, 2018;Poorkavoos et al., 2016). ...
This study adopts an integrated approach to employee voice (EV) and analyses the impacts of direct and indirect EV mechanisms on firm innovation in small and medium‐sized firms separately. It also proposes a new categorization for direct EV, by distinguishing between verbal and written mechanisms, allowing us to take the level of formality of different EV mechanisms into account. The analysis of 17,890 European firms shows that verbal, written and indirect EV mechanisms are all positively related to a higher propensity of firm innovation in both small and medium firms. However, for verbal EV mechanisms the relationship is significantly stronger for small firms than medium firms. The results also reveal that medium firms derive higher benefit than small firms while combining and balancing EV mechanisms with different levels of formalization (i.e. verbal and indirect voice). However, the former also suffers from excessive formalization of employees’ involvement in the innovation process (e.g. through written and indirect voice). Overall, this study supports recent calls for the need to adopt an integrated, pluralistic approach to EV and has important implications for EV research in small and medium firms.
... The focus of employee participation in the socio-technical perspective is on its impact on organisational performance and employees' job quality. Moreover, management is not supposed to be pressured through employee participation into this win-win situation, nor does the sociotechnical perspective assume some sort of Enlighted Management (Bryson et al., 2006). Rather, a socio-technical design is presented as self-evident, as the (economically) logical perspective to follow for management. ...
This paper aims to critically examine employee participation in Industry 4.0, with a systematic literature review. A total of 58 studies were reviewed, resulting in a categorisation of the literature into three perspectives. The ‘techno‐optimist’ and the ‘socio‐technical’ perspective dominate in the reviewed papers. They both confirm a trend that frames employee participation in a unitarist tradition, which emphasises synergies between managerial efficiency and (mostly individual) participation, leading to high innovation potential. The third perspective is rooted in critical studies. Authors writing on the latter subject predict more standardisation and centralisation, and the continued demise of collective and representative forms of participation. To better understand the role of employees in Industry 4.0, we suggest confronting the current discourse with robust empirical research. On that basis, we reject both technological and social determinism, and we acknowledge the structural ambiguities and multidimensionality of employee participation in technological transformations.
... The companies studied are located in the Marmara, Aegean and the Black Sea regions where most of the Turkish shipyards are situated. Six shipyards were investigated: two of them are smaller, two of them are medium and the remaining two are larger establishmentsthe smaller ones in Turkey are officially defined as those with less than 50 employees as opposed to the medium-sized ones, with up to 250 employees, in line with the international literature (Forth et al., 2006). ...
Long‐lasting euphoria of the private sector managerialism has begun to be questioned even by its ardent advocators in recent years. Substantiating a distinct concern, this paper sheds light on what one might call ‘managerial Jacobinism’ through unstructured interviews conducted in Turkey's shipyards. As its most defining characteristics, the undervaluation of managerial work by the companies and the punitive treatment of good practices by the mediocre superiors provoke ill‐concealed defensive reactions among the managers to their insecurity at work while undermining both employees' productivity and the firms' performance in the midst of regulatory deficiencies. Managerial Jacobinism also spirals around a vertical frame by being more apparent and survival‐driven in the case of immediate managers whereas more ambition‐driven and detrimental when it comes to top managers resonating with their higher influence. Empirical findings further indicate that results are officiated by the intersecting variations in age, gender, ethnicity, occupations, administrative divisions and establishment size.
... ( Anyango et al., 2015;Budd, 2004;Bryson et al., 2006;Benson & Brown, 2010;Greenwell et al., 2008;Park & Kim. 2016;Torrington et al., 2011 .) ...
... In recent years, the relationship between voice and employee performance has been extensively studied (Rees et al., 2013;Chou and Barron, 2016). Some studies show that voice positively affects employee performance (Bryson et al., 2006;Whiting et al., 2008;Ng and Feldman, 2012;Chen and Hou, 2016), while others draw the opposite conclusion (Seibert et al., 2001;Hung et al., 2012). Song et al. (2019) argue that these two different conclusions may stem from prior researchers ignoring the effects of different types of voice on employee performance. ...
Voice behavior, the extra-role behavior of employees based on their sense of responsibility, plays an important role in organizational development. Research shows that an employee’s voice can have a positive impact on both the quality of decision-making and organizational performance. This study explores the relationship between the prohibitive voice and employees’ safety performance based on the theory of regulatory fit. The study examined 372 employees and their leaders in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China through a questionnaire survey. A moderated model was constructed, and the SPSS-PROCESS was applied to analyze the data. The study results show that prevention regulatory focus fit strengthened the positive association between the prohibitive voice and safety performance evaluation. This study provides a new perspective in understanding leaders’ evaluation of the prohibitive voice and concludes that the prohibitive voice should be encouraged in organizations as it promotes greater adherence to safety measures and helps reduce organizational development risks.
... Following the above literature on the relationship between consultative participation and organizational productivity, this study focused on determining the presumption by researchers that by listening to employee needs through consultative participation, only when meeting their needs will desire outcomes be gained (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006;Torka et al., 2010). ...
This study examined the effect of decision making and execution on the operational activities of Pension Fund Administrators in Nigeria. The study employed a survey research design with a population of 10 Pension Fund Administrators in Nigeria. Primary data employed for the study were analysed using the Chi-square analytical technique. The s Research results show that managers take account of organization’s strategic objectives which translate to good performance when making a decision. The study therefore recommends that strategic decisions should be well taken by managers to be able to deliver on the strategic objectives of the organizations they represent. Keywords: Decision-Making, Organizations, Performance, Strategic-Objective, PFAs
... Following the above literature on the relationship between consultative participation and organizational productivity, this study focused on determining the presumption by researchers that by listening to employee needs through consultative participation, only when meeting their needs will desire outcomes be gained (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006;Torka et al., 2010). ...
This study investigated the impact of Code of Corporate governance on the auditor’s expectation gap, following the implementation of the Nigerian corporate governance code. The study outcomes were based on the literature review, the analysis of the qualitative data and discussions of generated themes. The results revealed that adopting effective corporate governance (accountability) system positively contributes in narrowing the audit expectation gap due to the increasing interest in the role of accountability in fighting corruption in Nigeria. The Study recommends; the need for continued sensitization of the public, by both the auditing profession and other stake holders on the role and duties of the auditor, management and the board to avoid expectation gap from the public. The CBN, NAICOM, PENCOM and NCC should implement and enforce the approved Code of Governance. Keywords: Audit Expectation Gap, Corporate Accountability, Audit committees, Code of Corporate Governance, Regulatory agencies.
... However, these results must be interpreted with caution, given the cross-sectional nature of the data. In fact, it appears that employee perception of managerial responsiveness to worker voice leads to superior productivity in the UK (Bryson et al., 2006). In France, the research of Coutrot (1996) and Laroche (2004) also shows contrasting results. ...
The impact of unions on firm performance has been the subject of debate and controversy in most industrialized countries, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The purpose of this chapter is to review and assess the scope and limitations of the economic analysis of unions as well as the controversies surrounding the conclusions of existing empirical research. Although it is difficult to draw firm and general conclusions on the effects of unions on firm performance, the existing results lead us to consider unions not solely in terms of their costs for the company. Empirical results suggest that unionism is often associated with higher productivity but this relationship might vary across industries, institutional contexts and over time. Estimates of the causal mechanisms through which unions affect productivity allow a better understanding of the effects of unions. The literature on the effect of unions on productivity recognizes that part of this effect may work through reducing employee turnover and other mechanisms, such as technological and organizational innovations, which are essential factors of productivity growth. Recent studies dealing with the effects of unions on firm profits support Freeman and Medoff's (1984) conclusion that unionization is associated with lower profitability. Finally, union activities, especially collective bargaining, trade off some economic efficiency for greater justice in workplaces and reduced inequalities.
... Similarly, longitudinal data would allow for more confident conclusions about causal relations, which are difficult to draw with cross-sectional designs. Furthermore, the relationship between direct employee voice and job satisfaction, theoretically explained by the social exchange model, might be shaped by other factors, such as how managers respond to the suggestions and comments that employees make through direct voice mechanisms (Bryson et al., 2006). In particular, a favorable response by managers may lead employees to reciprocate with greater effort and, thus, experience greater job satisfaction. ...
This study examines the influence of direct and representative employee voice as well as their interactive effect on job satisfaction in China. Using the unique cross-sectional survey data from 350 firms over 3,000 workers across different industries and regions in China, the key findings of this paper suggest that the direct employee voice has a positive impact on employees’ job satisfaction while the relationship between representative voice and job satisfaction is insignificant. In addition, the interaction effect between direct and representative voice on job satisfaction is negative implying the inhibiting effect between these two forms of employee voice which in turn lowers job satisfaction. This study provides some practical implications supporting the importance of employee voice, particularly the direct voice. In particular, management should support the channels allowing employees to meaningfully involve and exercise their voice as effective strategies for contributing to enhance organizational performance through a more satisfied workforce.
... Although consultation does not address working conditions, it gives better access to senior managers (Armstrong, 2001). It also deals with different areas not covered by collective bargaining, including not only management plans and proposals but also sensitive issues such as large-scale redundancies, business transfers, health and safety, which are legal requirements for consultation (Bryson, Charlwood, & Forth, 2006; An, Becker, & Cheng, 2017). Non-union employee representatives may face difficulty in developing a collective voice and accessing external advice. ...
This paper addresses the key aspects of project management of organizational performance in the context of changing economic market relations and seeks for an alternative approach to fill the representation gap. Employee’s voice is chosen as the case of organizational performance, as it is important in many ways. In this context, key question is whether partnership mechanism could help labor union revival and increase mutual gains outcomes. In order to address the issues, first of all, the paper reviews the concept of employee’s voice, the features of direct communication, and representative participation, including consultation and partnership. Next, it explores the recent evolution of industrial relations in Kazakhstan and explains why the representation gap is important. Then it looks into the real business case study of the National Railway Company Kazakhstan to understand the features of partnership. The conclusion suggests that there is a need for a mix of direct communication and representative participation to fill the representation gap effectively, and partnership could be an effective mechanism to establish the cooperative industrial relations. Acknowledgment(s)This paper was written within PhD project “Barriers and solutions to small and medium entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan” (Ayana Zhaxylykova, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University).
... The first focuses on the correlates of poor working conditions and how these might be offset through job design/enrichment schemes (Hackman and Oldham, 1976;Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006) and/or better managerial practices and "technologies" (Black and Lynch, 2001;Bloom and Van Reenen, 2010;Bloom et al., 2012). The other approach, rooted in employment relations scholarship, examines how workplace outcomes can be improved through employee voice and involvement at work (Guest and Peccei, 2001;Bryson et al., 2006;Addison, 2009). ...
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies. Design/methodology/approach Using new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, the authors identify workplace institutions that are positively associated with employee perceptions of work and relations with management, what in combination the authors call a measure of the “good workplace.” In particular, the authors focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices. Findings The authors’ findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and progressive HR policies. There is no evidence in the authors’ estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e. that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or substitution (i.e. that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being). If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management. Originality/value This is the first time – to the authors’ knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being are being estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, while controlling for workplace institutions (e.g. union representation and human resource policies) that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers.
... The first focuses on the correlates of poor working conditions and how these might be offset through job design/enrichment schemes (Hackman and Oldham, 1976;Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006) and/or better managerial practices and "technologies" (Black and Lynch, 2001;Bloom and Van Reenen, 2010;Bloom et al., 2012). The other approach, rooted in employment relations scholarship, examines how workplace outcomes can be improved through employee voice and involvement at work (Guest and Peccei, 2001;Bryson et al., 2006;Addison, 2009). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, the authors identify workplace institutions that are positively associated with employee perceptions of work and relations with management, what in combination the authors call a measure of the “good workplace.” In particular, the authors focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices.
Findings
The authors’ findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and progressive HR policies. There is no evidence in the authors’ estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e. that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or substitution (i.e. that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being). If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management.
Originality/value
This is the first time – to the authors’ knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being are being estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, while controlling for workplace institutions (e.g. union representation and human resource policies) that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted unprecedented precarity upon workers, including concerns about job insecurity. We examine whether workers respond to job insecurity with voice, and assess the role of unions, managers, and employment arrangements in this relationship. Analyses of an original 2020 survey representative of Illinois and Michigan workers show that job insecurity is not significantly associated with voice. Further, while we find that union membership and confidence in organized labor are positively associated with voice, insecure workers are less likely to speak up than secure workers as confidence in organized labor increases. Last, we find that insecure nonstandard workers are less likely to use voice than their secure counterparts.
Given that an understanding of the inter-relationships among workplace conflict expressions is necessary for effective dispute resolution, this study explores the moderating roles of various types of voice mechanisms in the relationship between grievances and non-strike industrial actions. Using data from the Statistics Canada's Workplace and Employee Survey, we found evidence that a positive relationship between grievances and non-strike industrial action (e.g. slowdowns, work-to-rule, etc.) is stronger in workplaces with weaker union voice, is weaker in non-union workplaces with more extensive high-involvement work systems, and was not affected by the presence of alternative dispute resolution systems. Our findings provide theoretical insights into the role of voice mechanism in the inter-relationships between individual and collective forms of conflict in both union and non-union environments. The results also have practical implications for dispute resolution in terms of the management of conflict and dispute systems design.
We present theoretical and empirical evidence challenging early studies that found unions were detrimental to workplace innovation. Under our theoretical model, unions prefer product innovation to labour-saving technological process innovation, thus making union wage bargaining regimes more conducive to product innovation than competitive pay setting. We test the theory with population-representative workplace data for Britain and Norway. We find strong support for the notion that local bargaining leads to product innovation, either alone or together with technological innovation.
The present study aimed to develop a model for the voice of knowledge employees who were working in information technology (IT) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in science and technology parks affiliated with Iranian universities. This qualitative research was conducted based on the grounded theory model. For this purpose, semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with 13 individuals, including knowledge managers and employees as well as IT business experts in SMEs affiliated with science and technology parks of Iranian universities accredited by the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology. The study was conducted in the autumn and winter of 2019. The inclusion criteria for the selection of experts were having three complete years of vocational experience in SMEs with at least 50 employees. Then, the data was analyzed using Atlas T software (version 8) in the three stages of initial, axial, and selective coding, which led to the identification of 8 categories, 16 axial concepts, and 50 final codes. The results showed that the knowledge employee voice could lead to the greater interaction with customers, the achievement of competitive advantage, and high productivity and performance in the intended companies. Moreover, the findings can help the managers improve decision-makings about the obstacles and challenges that the employees may face in the process of growth and development of their companies.
Background & Purpose: Listening to the voices of employee improves the performance of the organization. Voice behaviors refer to the provision of voluntary information that aims to improve organizational performance. In this regard, in order to listen to the voice of the employees, the contexts and mechanisms must be provided, and the factors affecting these voice behaviors must be identified. As a result, the purpose of this article was to identify the factors affecting the facilitation of employees' voices and voices related to improvement in public organizations.
Organizations must provide employees with the opportunity to express their ideas, opinions, and information in processes relevant to their work in order to gain competitive advantage and continuous development. Constructive suggestions and employee criticism are important for organizations trying to maintain their position in highly competitive environment. the purpose of this study is to investigate the leadership integrity of employees by mediating the empowering behaviors of the leader. Also, this research is based on applied purpose and in terms of descriptive-correlational nature. The statistical population of this study consisted of 460 frontline employee of selected travel agencies in Yazd city and 210 people were selected through the Cochran formula. Data were collected through standard questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated and confirmed by content and construct validity and reliability through Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability index. The structural modeling technique with PLS 3 software was used for data analysis. The findings of this study show that a leader's behavioral integrity has a positive and significant effect on a leader's empowering behaviors. Leadership behavioral integrity also has a positive and significant effect on employee voices mediated by leader empowering behaviors. Finally, the results showed that the leader's behavioral honesty allows employees to participate in decisions, learn new skills, and enhance their performance, giving them more courage to share their thoughts and ideas with colleagues.
For much of the 20th century, a sizeable proportion of the workforce in the United States had access to a combination of dispute resolution and voice options through the union grievance process. The vast majority of today’s workforce, however, no longer does. The focus of this article is the proliferation of alternative relational exchange models developed in non-union firms. The author develops a theoretical framework proposing variation in the overarching non-union models employed by firms as a function of distinct organizational features and strategies. These models are the product of distinct configurations of voice and dispute-resolution strategies. The author proposes five alternative non-union models, discusses the internal and external characteristics associated with them, and evaluates distinct employer and worker outcomes.
Facing the spread of management-led direct employee voice, trade unions are stuck with a theoretical and practical dilemma: organising against the disintermediation threats or accepting the risk of marginalisation and partnering with management to at least secure mutual gains. This article casts light on organising disintermediation as a chance for trade unions to overcome the ‘ organising against vs surrendering to disintermediation’ trade-off, by taking the lead in the promotion, regulation and implementation of direct employee voice. The analysis of FIM-CISL Brescia shows that far from exclusively being a link to organisational performance and a challenge to union intermediation, direct employee voice may become a trade union goal, being the expression of employee self-determination and human dignity. Pursuing this goal translates into a multifaceted change for the trade union, regarding both its internal ( organising) and external ( partnership) dimension.
The management and treatment of employees stems from the history of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the eighteenth century. Welfare ideological businesses were concerned about the health and education of their workforce as their responsibility. Alternatively, Scientific Management viewed teamwork and worker consultation as unnecessary. In contrast, Elton Mayo’s ‘Human Relations Movement’ focused on the ‘human’ side of management viewing ‘psychological factors’ as important in understanding and influencing workplace performance. This prompted change and the emergence of the HRM ideology along as a result of external pressures on industry resulting in increasing competition in national and international markets. This chapter reviews the historical and theoretical development and debates of the Human Potential Movement, well-being at work, diverse HRM literature streams, high-commitment HRM practices that are espoused to promote high-performing organisations.
Unlike the private sector, the public sector requires more evidence to justify how well-being initiatives contribute to employee motivation and performance. Does well-being in both sectors mean the same thing? Businesses seek employee well-being as a vehicle to their sustained competitive advantage and achievement of performance. Most literature in the evaluation of Human Resource Management management (HRM) practices showed the application of two fit theories, ‘fit with best practice’ and ‘fit with contingency’. Empirical research and conceptualisation of a relevant model to standardise, measure, and to better understand the relationships between employee’s reaction to high-commitment HRM practices, the quality of working life and well-being at work is still understudied. Hence, this chapter as part of a larger scale study presents a conceptual framework to address these antecedents and consequences in the context of new public management.
This book analyses the crucial features of unionised labour markets. The models in the book refer to labour contracts between unions and management, but the method of analysis is also applicable to non-union labour markets where workers have some market power. In this book, Alison Booth, a researcher in the field, emphasises the connection between theoretical and empirical approaches to studying unionised labour markets. She also highlights the importance of taking into account institutional differences between countries and sectors when constructing models of the unionised labour market. While the focus of the book is on the US and British unionised labour markets, the models and analytical methods are applicable to other industrialised countries with appropriate modifications.
Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).
Based on the primary analysis of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), this is the fifth book in the series which began in 1980, and which is considered to be one of the most authoritative sources of information on employment relations in Great Britain. Interviews were conducted with managers and employee representatives in over 3,000 workplaces, and over 20,000 employees returned a self-completion questionnaire. This survey links the views from these three parties, providing a truly integrated picture of employment relations.
Corporate Culture, industrial Democracy, Industrial Rations, Participation Uses a longitudinal case study approach to analyse changes in industrial relations in a chemical company over the last decade. The authors argue that the concept of ''waves'' can be used to help understand developments during this period. The first wave related to the crisis of the early 1980s and a ''turnaround project'', while the second was part of a longer term and in a sense less urgent cultural change initiative. There was thus a shift in management thinking, from emphasizing compliance with short-term imperatives, to an attempt to develop a more fully co-operative relationship, where commitment was seen as central to the new way of working. However, underpinning this shift to a more co-operative relationship was a considerable shift in the balance of workplace power, a fact which explains the new relationship more effectively than increased employee understanding or the growth of consensus at the workplace. At the same time, there remained ambiguity amongst the key actors in the process. Whilst senior management strongly supported the new programme of change, middle managers and supervisors were much less enthusiastic. Unions also were ambivalent in their attitudes, given the dimunition of their role. Amongst other things, the case illustrates the difficulty encountered when management attempt to change organizational culture to achieve high trust industrial relations.
Twenty years have passed since Freeman and Medoff's What Do Unions Do? This essay assesses their analysis of how unions in the U.S. private sector affect economic performance - productivity, profitability, investment, and growth. Freeman and Medoff are clearly correct that union productivity effects vary substantially across workplaces. Their conclusion that union effects are on average positive and substantial cannot be sustained, subsequent evidence suggests an average union productivity effect near zero. Their speculation that productivity effects are larger in more competitive environments appears to hold up, although more evidence is needed. Subsequent literature continues to find unions associated with lower profitability, as noted by Freeman and Medoff. Unions are found to tax returns stemming from market power, but industry concentration is not the source of such returns. Rather, unions capture firm quasi-rents arising from long-lived tangible and intangible capital and from firm-specific advantages. Lower profits and the union tax on asset returns leads to reduced investment and, subsequently, lower employment and productivity growth. There is little evidence that unionization leads to higher rates of business failure. Given the decline in U.S. private sector unionism, I explore avenues through which individual and collective voice might be enhanced, focusing on labor law and workplace governance defaults. Substantial enhancement of voice requires change in the nonunion sector and employer as well as worker initiatives. It is unclear whether labor unions would be revitalized or further marginalized by such an evolution.
Conclusion I have attempted to distill a quite sizable body of literature written by modern economists on the theory of labor unions,
with particular emphasis given to the “two faces” view of unions developed by Freeman and Medolf in What Do Unions Do? Many important ideas and contributions have necessarily been omitted, but hopefully the main contours and implications are
captured.
Works councils, found in most Western European economies, are elected bodies of employees with rights to information, consultation, and in some cases co-determination of employment conditions at local workplaces, mandated by law. Many European employers and unions believe that councils improve communication between workers and management, raising social output, while reducing the speed with which decisions are made. This paper analyzes the operation of councils as a means of improving social output by creating more cooperative labor relations. It argues that councils are mandated because the incentive for companies to institute them and delegate them power falls short of the social incentive; that workers provide more accurate information to employers about preferences when councils have some say over how that information is used; and that the communication from employers to workers produces socially desirable worker concessions in bad times that would not occur absent this institution. It compares a jury style random selection of works councilors with selection via elections.
Sustainable competitive advantage has proved elusive for companies in the 1990s. While making enormous investments in technology, research, and state-of-the-art marketing, many of today's managers continue to ignore the single most important factor in achieving and maintaining competitive success: people. Yet all evidence indicates that the source of competitive advantage is shifting from technology, patents, or strategic position to how a company manages its employees. In this excerpt from his newly published book, Competitive Advantage through People, Jeffrey Pfeffer describes how successful companies have overcome the barriers to change and offers a solid framework—with specific actions—for implementing these changes in any industry.
This paper argues that worker participation has not evolved out of the humanization of capitalism, as is usually suggested, but has appeared cyclically. These cycles are traced over more than a century and are shown to correspond to periods when management authority is felt to be facing challenge. Participation is thus best understood as a means of attempting to secure labour's compliance. However, the framework of common interests upon which participation is premised is untenable, and in practice the efficiency of such schemes in Britain has been for the most part severely attenuated by the realities of structural conflict.
Line managers and supervisors have a prime role in ensuring the
success of performance outcomes under HRM. They are required to take on
new people management roles, whether it be through a style which is
“hard” and control centred or more “soft” and
facilitative. Presents findings from an in-depth study of 45
establishments. Highlights concerns over whether line managers and
supervisors are sufficiently competent to take on demanding roles
required under change programmes, and the difficulties in attempting to
transfer an HR vision, which is senior management-led, down to the line.
Legislative developments and some renewal of managerial interest are drawing attention to systems of employee representation in the non-union sector. This article examines such data as exist on the extent and effectiveness of such systems, asks whether they can provide effective substitutes for union-based systems, and argues that this appears unlikely.
Over the last two decades, there has been a switch in British workplaces away from union voice and representative worker voice more generally toward direct employee involvement and nonunion representative forms of voice. This article assesses the implications of this switch for the effectiveness of worker voice, as measured by employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness. In general, perceptions of managerial responsiveness are better among employees with nonunion voice than they are among employees with union voice.
The main empirical conclusion of this paper are: (i) Higher levels of debt are associated with increases in both the level and the growth rate of productivity (ii) Increases in market share are associated with falls in the level of productivity, while companies with a higher market share experience higher productivity growth. (iii) Productivity growth was higher in union firms during 1979-89, and might have been lower during 1975-78.
This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switching costs associated with changing regimes. The paper presents data from WERS, which is then analysed in terms of the model. We find a rise in voice regimes that do not include unions (i.e. the growth of so-called non-union voice) and a clear decline in voice regimes involving unions, particularly union-only voice. Ecological factors (i.e. new entrants and the demise of older workplaces) are primary in explaining the rise in non-union voice, whereas the shift to dual forms of voice (made up of union and non-union regimes side by side) was primarily the result of switches undertaken by union only workplaces as early as the 1950s.
In this paper I critique and then develop Willman, Bryson and Gomez's (2006) ‘Sound of Silence’ model of employer voice choice.
I argue that the original cost/benefits based model, while potentially very useful, particularly for investigating cross-sectional
variation in the incidence of voice, is curiously ill equipped to explain variation in voice arrangements over time. This
shortcoming is the result of the failure to state explicitly some of the key determinants of the costs and benefits of employer
voice choice, namely union power and political economic organisation. I demonstrate how these variables have influenced the
development of voice arrangements in Britain over the course of the last century and argue that as a result of these constraints,
employer voice choice is often no choice at all.
It is apparent from existing research in the UK that little is known about how forms ofnon-union employee representation (NER) are composed, their independence from managerial influence, the “representativeness” of such bodies, and their accountability. In addition, little has been documented about the impact of such structures on either the managerial objective of securing consent to organisational change or the employee objective of influencing managerial decisions. This research will attempt to address these issues by examining NER structures in the UK and, in particular, assessing their effectiveness in representing the needs of employees through an examination of representative arrangements at Eurotunnel. Overall, the evidence suggests that most NER structures are used as devices for consultation and communication rather than as bargaining agents. While it can be argued that consultation, not bargaining, may indeed be their objective, it nevertheless questions the legitimacy of such bodies as true alternatives to unions. This presents the issue of whether state-sponsored NER forms with provisions for resources and training could improve the effectiveness of NER forms in representing employees’ interests at the workplace. As the Eurotunnel example and previous evidence have indicated, while NER structures can be used as mechanisms for more effective means of communication and consultation, their effectiveness as bodies representing the interests of employees in filling the lack of representation is questionable.
This paper investigates the relationship between trade unions and financial performance using British establishment-level data. The authors estimate the average overall impact of manual union recognition in 1990 to be roughly half what it was in 1984. They report results suggesting that in 1990 unionized establishments have lower financial performance only where there are closed shop arrangements and the establishments have some product market power and that this effect is greater where managerial freedom to allocate tasks is limited by union work rules. This latter combination occurs in only about one in ten of the unionized workplaces in the authors' sample. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.
Im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts waren die Kollektivverhandlungsstrukturen in Gro�britannien einem betr�chtlichen Wandel unterworfen. W�hrend die Bedeutung kollektiver Verhandlungen bis Ende der 70er Jahre zugenommen hat, ist der Deckungsgrad kollektiver Verhandlungen seit 1980 drastisch zur�ckgegangen. Dies ist verbunden mit einem �bergang von kollektiven zu individuellen Regelungsmechanismen f�r die Arbeitgeber- Arbeitnehmer-Beziehung. Dieser Artikel liefert zun�chst einen �berblick �ber die Entwicklung der Kollektivverhandlungsstrukturen zwischen 1895 und 1998. Es folgt eine Diskussion von sieben Perioden der Kollektivverhandlungsgeschichte Gro�britanniens zwischen 1780 und 2000. Zu guter letzt zeigt der Artikel, dass die Entstehung und Entwicklung kollektiver Verhandlungsstrukturen in Gro�britannien eng mit der Entwicklung staatlicher Politik sowie der Entstehung und Entwicklung der Gewerkschaften und der Arbeitgeberverb�nde verbunden ist. -- During the twentieth century, collective bargaining structures have undergone a process of considerable change in Britain. Whereas collective bargaining had increased in importance until the mid-1970s, the period following saw a marked decline in collective bargaining coverage. This is associated with the shift from collective to individual regulation of the employment relationship. The article first outlines the evolution of collective bargaining between 1895 and 1998. It continues with a discussion of seven periods of collective bargaining history from 1780 to 2000. The article finally shows that the emergence and evolution of governance structures in Britain is closely related to public policy as well as the emergence and evolution of trade unions and employers' associations.
Debates about Britain's productivity performance have often drawn attention to the roles played by working practices and employment relations. In the 1980s and 1990s, trade unions were a prime focus; more recently, attention has turned to high-involvement management (HIM) practices (also referred to as 'high-performance work systems'). We combine the two to investigate the relationships between work organisation, trade union representation and workplace performance. We find that HIM has a positive impact on labour productivity. However, this effect is restricted to unionised workplaces, and seems more readily explained by concessionary wage bargaining than 'mutual gains', given the absence of any association with financial performance. These findings raise questions about the universal applicability of HIM as a route to improved workplace performance. Copyright (c) Scottish Economic Society 2005.
Productivity growth in 329 companies (total employment = 1.96 million workers) is analysed for the period 1984-1989. The study breaks new ground by (i) analysing the impact of changes in union status - such as repudiation of a closed shop or derecognition - on productivity growth; (ii) examining the impact of interactions among product market and industrial relations variables on companies' productivity changes; (iii) including companies in the service sector as well as in manufacturing. The results suggest no difference in productivity growth between union and non-union companies over the years 1984-7. But in 1988 and 1989 unionised companies experienced faster productivity growth than their non-union counterparts. This wedge in productivity growth over non-union companies was twice as large in companies where there had been a diminution in union status compared with companies where union status was unchanged. The results probably reflect both the signal that management has (re-)asserted its prerogatives and cycles in union effects shaped by the intertemporal behaviour of the economic cycle.
This paper is concerned with the analysis of total factor productivity at the company level using a panel of over 100 U.K. manufacturing companies. The main empirical conclusions are: (i) Higher levels of debt are associated with increases in both the level and the growth rate of productivity, (ii) Increases in market share are associated with falls in the level of productivity, while companies with a higher market share experience higher productivity growth. (iii) Productivity growth was higher in union firms during 1979–1984, and might have been lower during 1975–1978.
If the presence of a union in a workplace or firm raises the pay level, unless productivity rises correspondingly, financial performance is likely to be worse. If the product market is uncompetitive this might imply a simple transfer from capital to labour with no efficiency effects, but is probably more likely to lead to lower investment rates and economic senescence. Therefore the impact of unions on productivity, financial performance and investment is extremely important. This paper distils evidence on such effects from six countries: USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia. It is not possible to use theory to predict unambiguously any union effect on productivity because unions can both enhance and detract from the productivity performance of the workplace or firm. The evidence indicates that, in the USA, workplaces with both high performance work systems and union recognition have higher labour productivity than other workplaces. In the UK previous negative links between unions and labour productivity have been eroded by greater competition and more emphasis on 'partnership' in industrial relations but there is a lingering negative effect of multi-unionism, just as there is in Australia. In Germany the weight of the evidence suggests that the information, consultation and voice role of works councils enhances labour productivity particularly in larger firms. In Japan unions also tend to raise labour productivity via the longer job tenures in union workplaces which makes it more attractive to invest in human capital and through the unpaid personnel manager role played by full-time enterprise union officials in the workplace. Unions will reduce profits if they raise pay and/or lower productivity. The evidence is pretty clear cut: the bulk of studies show that profits or financial performance is inferior in unionised workplaces, firms and sectors than in their non-union counterparts. But the world may be changing. A recent study of small USA entrepreneurial firms found a positive association between unions and profits and in the UK the outlawing of the closed shop, coupled with a lower incidence of multi-unionism has contributed to greater union-management cooperation such that recent studies find no association between unions and profits. North American and German evidence suggests that unionisation reduces investment by around one fifth compared with the investment rate in a non-union workplace. In both Canada and the USA this effect is even felt at low levels of unionisation. The UK evidence is mixed: the most thorough study also finds that union recognition depresses investment, but this adverse effect is offset as density rises. The exception is Japan where union recognition goes hand-in-hand with greater capital intensity.
The year 2003 was widely perceived as the year of the 'awkward squad'- a group of recently elected union leaders more prepared than their predecessors to challenge New Labour. It was also a year in which unions were perceived to have experienced the beginnings of a recovery. In this review I argue that both of these perceptions are misplaced. The new generation of union leaders are a more disparate bunch than the 'awkward squad' label implies. The unions they lead remain seriously weakened by a harsh and inhospitable environment. Union recovery is unlikely unless the environment changes or the new union leaders can succeed against the odds in changing the environment through political activity. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2004.
We examine the determinants of establishment performance in the UK, using cross-sectional data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to replicate research by Fernie and Metcalf (1995) who used data from the 1990 Workplace Employee Relations Survey; specifically, we test whether employee representation, contingent pay and efforts to boost employee participation affect a set of economic and industrial relations outcome indicators in the manner they suggest. We also re-estimate the influential WERS90-based study of Machin and Stewart (1996) on the links between union status and financial performance. In both cases we report very different results. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2001.
HRM and Commitment: A Case Study of Team-working
- P Edwards
- M Wright
Edwards, P. and M. Wright (1998), 'HRM and Commitment: A Case Study of Team-working', in P. Sparrow and M. Marchington (eds), HRM: The New Agenda (London, Pitman) pp. 272–283.
Trade Unions The State of Working Britain
- D Metcalf
Metcalf, D. (2003b), 'Trade Unions', in P. Gregg and J. Wadsworth (eds), The State of Working Britain, 2nd edn (London, Macmillan).
Non-union Forms of Employee Representation in the UK and Australia Non-union Employee Representation: History, Contempo-rary Practice and Policy
- P Gollan
Gollan, P. (2000), 'Non-union Forms of Employee Representation in the UK and Australia', in B. Kaufman and P. Taras (eds), Non-union Employee Representation: History, Contempo-rary Practice and Policy (Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe) pp. 410–449.
The Growth of Direct Communication (London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)
- J Forth
- N Millward
Forth, J. and N. Millward (2002), The Growth of Direct Communication (London, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).
Inside the Workplace: First Findings from the
- B Kersley
- C Alpin
- J Forth
- A Bryson
- H Bewley
- G Dix
- S Oxenbridge
Kersley, B., C. Alpin, J. Forth, A. Bryson, H. Bewley, G. Dix and S. Oxenbridge (2005), Inside the Workplace: First Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (London, Department of Trade and Industry).
Direct Participation
- M Marchington
- A Wilkinson
Marchington, M. and A. Wilkinson (2000), 'Direct Participation', in S. Bach and K. Sisson (eds), Personnel Management (Oxford, Blackwell) pp. 340–364.
- Kersley B.
- Carroll R.