Employee Loyalty Reduces Employee Voice - Essay Example

Employee loyalty reduces employee voice Name: Institution: Instructor: Course Code: Submission Date: Employee loyalty reduces employee voice Employee voice and employee loyalty have been areas of considerable research within industrial relations and human resource management literature. Quite a number of studies have sort to link these two concepts together, and how each affects the other. The very first study to link the concepts was Hirschman (cited in Furaker, 2009, pp. 158) who in his exit, voice, and loyalty model, noted that employees in a workplace can react in two ways if they are faced with unfavourable situations. They can either ‘voice’ their concerns regarding the issues, or they can ‘exit’ the organisation. Loyalty on the other hand determines what decision an employee makes. A loyal employee would most likely voice their concerns, while one is not loyal would leave the organisation (Boroff & Lewin, 1997). Over the years, as clearly evidenced by increased emphasis in employee participation and engagement, research has shown that employee ‘voice’ triumphs over ‘exit’, as employees are able to speak up and address the issue and the organisation gets to know more about the problem and address it (Landau, 2009; Van Buren, 2008; Olson-Buchanan & Boswell, 2001). From Hirschman’s argument, he argues that employee loyalty increases employee’s ability to voice their concerns. This paper argues that employee loyalty also has the potential of reducing employee’s voice in workplace. Quite a number of studies have sort to investigate the relationship between employee voice and employee loyalty to the organisation (organisational commitment). In these, loyalty is perpetrated either as a factor that determines the choice between voice and exit, or as a result of voice or exit (Olson-Buchanan & Boswell, 2001; Landau, 2009); where employees would tend to be more loyal when they perceive that they could freely voice their concerns at work. This implies that loyalty either suppresses or activates voice. Either way, both voice and loyalty have significant roles to play in organisations and how they influence each also impacts human resource management performance, job satisfaction and employee commitment and engagement (Furaker, 2009). Employees’ voicing their ideas is one of the core drivers of organisational effectiveness. How an employee raises an issue at the workplace is highly determined by how they view the workplace environment or how committed or loyal they are to the organisation. Employee loyalty to an organisation varies in degree. Graham and Keeley (1992) identify passive loyalty where employees who are loyal tend to wait passively and patiently for things to go back to their previous state or to a more agreeable position before they take action. In this case, where there is a rising concern, a passively loyal employee would most likely sit it out and wait for things to calm down. This kind of loyalty quite differs from Hirschman’s view of loyalty, where he conceptualised a more active and reformist loyalty which makes employees in an organisation either choose to leave in the case of deteriorating relations, or choose to voice their concerns and take part in reaching a solution. Just as employee voice has been advocated as a means of enhancing competitiveness, employee commitment and loyalty and organisational performance, so has the significance of employee loyalty been highlighted in ensuring a more sustainable organisation (Holland, Pyman, Cooper, & Teicher, 2011). How employee loyalty impacts the ability of the employee to voice their concern is influenced by a number of factors. These may individual differences in how employees think, it may be with regard to given situations, and also may be impacted by the culture or system exhibited by and organisation. The kind of culture or structure within an organisation would inherently impact how various employees in the organisation react and respond to varying situations. Where an organisation promotes a participatory culture, where employees play a big role in decision making and are free to voice their concerns, active loyalists are more likely to exist in such an organisation. In a participative organisation, where areas of contention arise, those who are strongly committed to the organisation tend to voice their concerns in order to rectify the situation (Graham and Keeley, 1992; Landau, 2009). This aligns well with Hirschman’s view on the relationship between these two concepts. However, not all organisations follow a participative regime that encourages employee participation and opinions. Some organisations follow autocratic style of management where decisions are made based on hierarchical authority. In such organisations, subordinate employees obey without question decisions that have been made. Such a work environment nurtures more passive loyal employees. In the case where issues arise in the organisation, employees who are loyal to the organisation would tend to talk less than those who are not loyal (Buchanan and Boswell, 2001). Indeed organisations which have policies and a culture that encourage exposition of unethical behaviours within the organisation and provide a mean through which this can be done, for instance anonymous whistle blowing hotline, tends to have loyal people who would speak out more against such unethical behaviours. However, even those who are not loyal to the organisation may speak out more complaining about the situation rather trying to find redress for the situation (Landau, 2009; Buchanan and Boswell, 2001). Most organisations in countries such as the United States and Australia have mechanisms that encourage exposition of unethical behaviour within the organisation, or which encourage employees to speak out more such as open door policies. However, those organisations which do not have such mechanisms in place, would tend to stifle employee voice from those loyal to the organisation since speaking out could be seen as making trouble. Aside from organisational culture, the seriousness and relevance of a concern within an organisation however can also determine employee voice in an organisation. Where an issue raised is trivial, loyal employees would relatively likely to be quite unlike those who like complaining and have little affection for the organisation. As the issues rises in significance, those attached to the organisation would tend to speak more as they attempt to find solutions to the problem and reverse any negative effects, while those with little attachment would tend to be relatively quiet (Graham and Keeley, 1992). For instance, where the organisation is faced with decline as most were during the past recession, most reformist loyal employees would most likely try to offer suggestion to reverse the situation and repair the damage, than would passive loyal employees who would wait out till issues are sorted out before speaking. Individual differences in competence also impact the relationship voice and loyalty. Employees who are more skilled in innovative thinking and critical analysis, and have more courage to speak up, may voice their concerns with regard to a situation in the workplace, whether they are loyal or not (Graham and Keeley, 1992). Those who are more patient, quite and forbearing, whether loyal or not would most likely be more silent. It can therefore be noted, that Hirschman’s view only looked at one side of the argument, without taking contextual factors into account. Indeed a number of scholars have investigated further the relationship to understand factors that encourage employees voice their concerns and the impact that lack of voice has on employee loyalty in the organisation. For instance, Perlow and Williams (cited in Landau, 2009, pp. 4) noted that in an organisational environment where employee voice was stifled, employees tended to have negative feelings towards the organisation and hence increase instances of disloyalty. This is further confirmed by Farndale, Ruiten, Kelliher, and Hope-Hailey (2011) who note that higher perceived employee voice influences increased organisational commitment, while commitment to the organisation may not necessarily have the same effect on employee voice. Although, for most instances Hirschman’s argument that loyalty fosters employees to speak out about a problem is right, it only covers one side of the argument and fails to acknowledge that in other instances, loyalty may actually make employees be quite than speak out. Boroff and Lewin (1997) in his survey study found that employees who were not loyal to the organisation tended to speak out more through the grievance system than those who were loyal. These views are further supported by Olson-Buchanan and Boswell (2001) who note that loyal employees rather choose to use non formal means to address issues rather than use the formal grievance system that is in an organisation. In essence, this implies loyal employees are more careful in the way they approach an issue in the workplace, and rather than use the grievance system within an organisation to address issues arising, they tend to choose a different mechanism, for instance through friendly conversations. Since a grievance system, or an anonymous hotline within an organisation meant to improve employee voice is likely perceived to be used employees who feel aggrieved, loyal employees would most likely not be willing to use this voice mechanism to raise their concerns. They would more likely to speak directly to individuals that they have an issue with rather than voice their concerns formally through the voice mechanisms in a workplace. Olson-Buchanan and Boswell (2001) found the more formal voice mechanisms in an organisation to be less satisfying to loyal employees with regard to voicing their concerns. This would suggest more loyal employees would tend to avoid formally voicing their concerns as the use of formal voicing system in work may present a bad experience to the employee. Formal grievance systems in organisations tend to be perceived as adversarial, and hence tend to inconsistent with the relationship that a loyal employee has towards the organisation. Although by loyal employees choosing non-formal ways of addressing arising issues would imply that that they still voice their concerns, hence implying that loyalty positively influences employee voice, informal means still has its drawbacks. First and foremost, employees may not address all the issues they seek to address (Olson-Buchanan and Boswell, 2001). For instance, an employee may selectively express their views leaving out some issues that they feel would not be well received. Hence, they would not completely and unreservedly be able to speak their mind. This would tend to support the view that even if loyal employees speak out, they still do so with care, taking into consideration how voicing their concerns would impact their relationship with the organisation In conclusion therefore, this paper sought to expand on Hirschman’s argument, where he argues that employee loyalty increases employee’s ability to voice their concerns, by arguing that employee loyalty also has the potential of reducing employee’s voice in workplace. It can be noted that in various given circumstances, employees who are loyal to an organisation can voice their concerns with regard to concerns in the workplace, or they may not speak out due to their strong attachment to the company. In more autocratic organisations for instance, loyal employees tend not to complain. They rather sit it out and wait for things to return to the way they were or to be better. In such cases, the employees believe the leaders in the organisation can sort out the issues. Then again, how grave an issue is or an individual’s personality with regard to self expression plays a key role in determining whether loyalty impacts employee’s ability to raise issues of concern. Where issues of concern are trivial, a loyal employee may probably not speak out. References Boroff, K.E. & Lewin, D. (1997). Loyalty, Voice and Intent to Exit a Union Firm: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis. Industrial and Labour Relations Review, 51(1), 50-64. Cusack, G.P. (2008). Willingness: A Reflection on Commitment, Organisation Citizenship and Engagement from the perspective of Albert O. Hirschman’s concept of Exit, Voice and Loyalty. The Peter J. Tobin College of Business. Farndale, E., Ruiten, J.V., Kelliher, C., and Hope-Hailey, V. (2011). The Influence Perceived Employee Voice on Organisational Commitment: An Exchange Perspective. Human Resource Management, 50(1), 113-129. Furaker, B. (2009). Unsatisfactory Working Conditions and Voice: An analysis of Employees in Sweden. Journal of Workplace Rights, 14(2), 157-173 Graham, J.W. and Keeley, M. (1992). Hirschman’s Loyalty Construct. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 5(3), 191-201 Holland, P., Pyman, A., Cooper, B.K., & Teicher, J. (2011). Employee Voice and Job Satisfaction in Australia: The Centrality of Direct Voice. Human Resource Management, 50(1), 95-111. Landau, J. (2009). When Employee Voice is Met by Deaf Ears,’ SAM Advanced Management Journal, winter, 4-13. Olson-Buchanan, J. & Boswell, W.R. (2001). Voicing Discontent: The Role of Employee Loyalty and Informality. Academy of Management Proceedings, CM. Van Buren, H.J. (2007). Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer-Employee Partnerships Enough. Journal of Business Ethics, 81, 209-221. Read More