Formal, Justice‐Oriented Voice in the Nonunion Firm: Who Speaks Up and When?

Abstract

Employee willingness to exercise workplace voice has been the subject of much recent research. However, very different types of voice are observed within the workplace, with some forms of voice receiving limited scholarly attention. In particular, limited attention has been given to the determinants of formal, justice‐oriented voice within a nonunion context. Using a policy‐capturing design, we examine factors that affect decisions to use formal, justice‐oriented voice among 498 nonunion employees who had access to the same appeal procedure. The results suggest that this type of voice is affected by perceptions regarding immunity from negative managerial reactions to voice and also by factors associated with the utility of voice (e.g., the social power of those involved in the appeal and the evidence available to support the appeal). The results further suggest that perceived immunity moderates the impact of the social power of those involved in the appeal and the evidence available.

Perceived organizational support and its interaction with voice on police officers' organizational cynicism, stress and emotional exhaustion

“…Those describing low levels of voice at low levels of POS may have perceived that workplace leaders would not be willing or available to listen (i.e. that their voice has low utility; Klaas and Ward, 2015), or may have been worried that their voice would result in retribution (i.e. quiescent silence; Pinder and Harlos, 2001).…”

Tracking employee voice: developing the concept of voice pathways

“…Alternatively, union‐focused (collective) voice would also follow different pathways. Thus, while our research agenda is broad in identifying voice pathways over a range of matters, this article segments our initial contribution through illustrative cases of grievance articulation providing us an opportunity to initially understand what motivates employees to correct a perceived injustice or mistreatment (Klaas and Ward 2015). We then contend that understanding pathways is equally important for other types of voice, such as pro‐social or collective voice related to work issues and concerns for workplace improvements, or as many voice articles use Hirschman’s (1970) suggestion, to escape an objectionable state of affairs.…”

“…Delineating antecedents to pro‐social and justice voice, Klaas, Olsen‐Buchanan and Ward (2012) identified that the relationship one has with their supervisor, perceptions of psychological safety and managerial reactions to voice were related to both of these voice types. Confidence about being able to prove claims is also significantly related to employees’ motivations to engage in formal grievance voice (Klaas and Ward 2015).…”

Keeping dispute resolution internal: Exploring the role of the industrial relations climate, organizational embeddedness and organizational turbulence

“…For example, research has found that a high level of trust in managers leads employees to communicate with the manager (Gao et al, 2011). In addition, the willingness to appeal to the senior manager or a third party to address perceived mistreatment was likely to relate to whether the employees perceived themselves as being immune from actions that might flow from negative managerial reactions (Klaas and Ward, 2015). An empirical research study conducted in Western Canada showed that a cooperative union–management climate was likely to increase the chances of grievances being resolved or partially resolved because when a union–management relationship was good, the grievances were usually examined in the spirit of cooperation and problem-solving (Dastmalchian and Ng, 1990).…”