Employee Voice as an Important Phenomenon of Organization Change - Case Study Example

Employee Voice Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Employee Voice Employee voice is a set of procedures or rules that allow individuals affected by a given decision to present information pertinent to it (van Ruiten, 2007). Organizations give voice to their employees through formal and informal channels in a bid to minimize or eliminate conflict, improve organizational communication and ensure staff retention through motivating them and fair treatment for all. It is a kind of employee empowerment and motivation which results into increased productivity and low staff turn over. Hence, the firm will realize increased profitability. The informal channels of employee voice include the day-to-day general conversation between employers and the employees, emails, work place meetings, employee feedback and social functions. In this regard, employees influence corporate decision through such actions as absenteeism or turnover. Formal channels on the other hand include those communication channels that the organization’s human resource department has implemented such as suggestion boxes or employee surveys. Employers also form employee consultative committees while employees may also be represented through trade unions (Benson, 2000). Employee voice is an important phenomenon with regard to organization change as it allows the input of every employee to be taken into consideration. For instance, during times of change, the relationship between employees and the line management determines the level of trust and sets forth mechanisms to enhance employee commitment to the organization and organizational change (van Ruiten, 2007; Brewster et al, 2007; Marginson et al, 2008). Case study A good example of a situation where employee voice is important is the case presented by Boxall and Purcell (2008). The case is about a large company that aimed at implementing a host of changes without involving all of its employees. The HR Director came up with an idea borrowed from another company and tried to implement it by discussing it only with the people he felt he had a good relationship with. Employees were adamant to be involved in the new programme and when they eventually did, the negotiations ended with a 2 percent increase and no change in employment conditions. Further negotiations led to a pay increase between 3.5 and 4 percent and no major changes to employment conditions. Nevertheless, the company realised a decline in return on investment from 11.75 percent to 9 percent p.a. within three years. The case above highlights the importance of employee voice in all organizational decisions. According to Marsden (2007), collective voice (which comes as a result of recognizing employee voice) can reinforce the effectiveness of an organization in three ways: it can take key distributional elements out of bargaining so that that employees can focus more on the win-win aspects of integrative negotiation; it can help improve the design of systems and enhance their procedural justice As noted above, employee voice is crucial in ensuring organizational effectiveness. However, organizations need to adopt a strategic human resource management model that ensures employee voice is granted. There are three strategic human resource models that a firm can adopt. These models include; a) Best-fit models This model of human resource management requires that the human resources strategies adopted fit tightly to the overall strategy of the organization. Collective representation through employee voice helps increase efficiency as managers are able to find management designs that best fit their employees’ preferences and judgements (Marsden, 2007). b) Best- practice model The model emphasizes that the firm implements best practice in human resource for the firm to realize improved performance. c) Resource-based view of the firm This model emphasizes that for a firm to have a competitive advantage, the firm must ensure proper application of all valuable resources of the firm which also include human resources. According to Delaney (2006), the best practice model is the one that adequately provides for the employees voice in decision making. The model outlines the best practices to be implemented by organizations. The practices are geared towards enhancing overall employee performance within the organization. The model emphasizes on the commitment of the employer towards the employees in such areas as training and development and participation in work groups and committees. The employees on the other hand reciprocate by getting increasingly committed to the organization, hence leading to increased performance of the organization. The best practices are therefore aimed at employees’ development, increasing their commitment resulting in improved organizational performance and hence creating a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Vorria & Bohoris, 2009). Delaney (2006) states that the organization should offer training and development to its staff in order to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills for fulfilling the organizational business plan. Training provides a competitive advantage to the firms with the wisdom to use the skills acquired. Effective training occurs at personal, operational and organizational (group) levels. Training and development ought to occur in many areas and not just at operational level so as to lead to increased employee performance. Training should also help enhance individual employees self esteem and should be done in conjunction with meetings aimed at improving communication and hence reduce conflict hence leading to improved overall organizational performance. Communication is another element of creating a strategic HRM model. According to van Ruiten (2007), a probable organizational action to impact positively employees’ attitudes towards organizational change is setting forth a strategy and communicating a message of active employee voice or participation before or during organizational change. This will make people to develop a higher level of commitment to the organization as opposed to the case of the company that was addressed in this paper. Communication is a vital aspect in ensuring that the organization is smoothly run (Delaney, 2006). If used as a best practice, it provides every employee with a voice within the organization. For example, workers should be enabled to communicate their grievances freely with the relevant authorities without fear. In fact, if communication was effective, then no grievances ought to occur since all the parties concerned are able to air their feelings and settle their issues before further action becomes necessary. One of the ways to reinforce employee voice is to ensure that employees have a say through workforce meetings, team briefings, attitude surveys and suggestion schemes (Brewster et al, 2007). Effective communication enables everyone within the organization to be aware of their roles and responsibilities. Effective communication leads to enhanced organizational productivity hence acting as a competitive advantage for the firm. Also, organizations ought to realize that employees dealing directly with customers are in a better position to know ways of improving organizational processes in order to improve customer satisfaction. Thus the employees should be allowed to communicate their ideas to the management before making decisions regarding these areas. Conclusion Facilitating employee is of vital importance in ensuring organizational effectiveness. This is because it creates a sense of responsibility among the employees and increases employee satisfaction. The employees therefore become more committed to the firm as they become its part and parcel. Furthermore, the firm is able to reduce the disputes that might arise out of employee dissatisfaction. As a result, the organization is able to run smoothly as everyone is content with the operations. In this way, employees’ voice can be used to create a competitive advantage for a firm hence leading to its overall effectiveness. In ensuring effective communication within the organization, the firm should adopt the best practice model of HRM since it adequately ensures that the employees’ voice is heard. This model leads to more committed workforce by encouraging ideas and contributions from motivated and better trained workers. This way, firms are able to achieve high levels of efficiency and avoid redundancies that come as a result of inept decisions. References: Benson, J. (2000). “Employee voice in union and non-union Australian workplaces.” British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(3): 453-459. Brewster, C., Croucher, R., Wood, G., & Brookes, M. (2007). “Collective and individual voice: convergence in Europe.” Human Resource Management, 18(7): 1246-1262. Delaney, H. M (2006). The impact of human resources management practices on perceptions of organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), 949. Marginson, P., Edwards, P., Ferner, A. & Tregaskis, O. (2008) “Employee representation and voice channels in multinational companies operating in Britain.” Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick. pp. 1.23. Marsden, D. (2007). “Individual employee voice: renegotiation and performance management in public services.” The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(7): 1263-1278. Van Ruiten, J.G.P. (2007).“The influence of employee voice on organizational commitment in times of organizational change: An exchange perspective.” Master’s thesis in Human Resource Studies, Tilburg Library. Vorria, E.P. & Bohoris, G. A. (2009). "Criteria requirements of the European business excellence model: a suggested approach", The TQM Journal, 21(2): 116 – 126. Read More