Advancing interests through informal voice: a study of professional workers in Sri Lanka's knowledge outsourcing sector

Abstract

Drawing on a rhetorical approach, this article examines how early career professional workers challenge ‘ideal worker expectations’ through informal voice. Informal ‘voice’ is shown as a powerful way of advancing workers' interests, leading to incremental changes that improve their conditions of work. Striking are the power dynamics underpinning informal voice. Highlighting how ideal worker expectations are continuously legitimised and de‐legitimised as employees and their managers rhetorically engage with each other, ideal worker expectations are theorised as a process while illuminating a pluralistic, contextualised view of organisational culture shaped by the past, present and anticipated future.

Sex-based harassment and organizational silencing: How women are led to reluctant acquiescence in academia

“…One can change topics of conversation, thereby effectively removing certain issues from the agenda altogether (Billig, 1996). It is important to recognize that persuasion is also influenced by the perceived authority, credibility (Giles and Coupland, 1991), exposure and expertise (Fernando, 2017) of speakers.…”

“…Studies have drawn on theoretical ideas of rhetoric to offer explanations into how ordinary employees undermine and invalidate normative organizational discourses (Nentwich and Hoyer, 2012;Symon, 2005). Research in this area has also shown how individuals challenge the assumptions underpinning normative discourses, and rework them in an effort to create new organizational realities (Fernando, 2017). In a study of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Young (2003) demonstrates how rhetorical persuasion is used to both maintain dominant accounting practices and silence alternatives to, and criticisms of, those practices.…”

“…In line with this discourse, as victims attempted to voice their experiences of sex-based harassment, ordinary colleagues vehemently counterargued (Billig, 1996) that they should not do so because their issue has been resolved or would be resolved if they trusted the system. In other words, the argumentative strategy involved challenging the fundamental assumption underpinning the victim's argument (Fernando, 2017;Nentwich and Hoyer, 2012), making the point that they do not have an issue that needs further redress.…”

How does the power dynamics in the information technology outsourcing supply chain influence supplier's talent retention: a multiple case study

“…To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first that identifies power dynamics in the ITO supply chain as an external factor that influences suppliers' talent retention. It hereby enriches our knowledge of the contextual factors shaping the HR practices of supplier firms and the ensuing employee outcomes (Fernando, 2017; Kanwar et al. , 2012).…”

“…We chose China because it represents an under-researched context for the topic of talent retention in ITO supply chain, compared with relatively abundant research efforts in the context of Anglophone or South Asian countries (e.g. Fernando, 2017; Kiessling et al. , 2012; Presbitero et al.…”