Unsilenced Employee Voice in South Africa: Social Media Misconduct Dismissals as Evidence of E-Voice

Abstract

Social media has transformed various aspects of daily life, particularly influencing communication and interaction in both physical and digital spaces. The South African employment relationship is no exception. Social media also creates opportunities for the articulation of employee voice. Through the content analysis of 118 South African first-instance social media misconduct dismissal decisions, this paper argues that employees use social media as a mechanism to express dissenting employee voice. There is evidence of individual employee voice notwithstanding employers implementing rules and social media policies to curtail expressions of dissent. It also persists despite the dismissal of employees for expressing employee voice through social media. Significantly, employee voice in the form of racialised speech badmouthing and cyber-criticising employers continues in the digital realm despite the legislative prohibition of hate speech. Despite high power disparities, the sample reveals a perfusion of individual e-voice by South African employees.

Employee voice on social media — An affordance lens

“…Whilst recent research by Cornish (2022) in the South African context showed that employees used external SM (such as Facebook and WhatsApp) to express dis-sent despite disciplinary action (dismissals), we argue that anonymity could provide an additional safety measure for employees who refrain from voicing on SM due to fear of negative consequences. Since anonymity provides safety through concealing the identity of the voicer, it allows employees to express themselves without fear of being alienated or labelled a trouble-maker (Milliken et al, 2003).…”