Employee Voice within the Workplace and Organizations - Essay Example

To What Extent Should There Be ‘Employee Voice’ Within The Workplace And Organizations? Table of Contents Introduction 3 Employee Voice 4 Examplesof ‘Employee Voice’ 6 Benefits of Employee Voice 6 Limitations of Employee Voice 7 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction ‘Employee Voice’ is the term which refers to the process of employee engagement or participation. In this process, the employees and their opinion tend to influence the decision taken by the management of any organization. According to Marsden (2009:2), employee voice is the procedure through which the employees get involved to many of the managerial activities of an organization as per their requirement. Employee voice involves the employees or the workers to assist the higher authority in making final decisions with the help of their viewpoint and their experience in the workplace or outside the workplace. Employee voice also helps the organizations to increase the overall performance level giving importance to the employees and creating an atmosphere where the employees can feel at home. It also helps to increase productivity and the quality of the products for a particular organization, as the higher authority appraises their employees and engage them to evaluate their performance (Marsden, 2009). Hereby, the prime objective of this study is to highlight the employee voice and its importance in today’s world. This paper would also include the present scenario of employee voice and how it is beneficial to the workplace of various organizations from an in depth view with illustrations. Employee Voice Employee voice is the practice where the employees or the workers have their right to put their opinions and to take part in certain decision-making activities. Employee voice includes employee’s behavior, attitudes, interests and openness among others. It helps an organization to be more stable and constructive which, in turn, leads to the overall development in the organizational productivity. It is worth mentioning in this context that employee voice is the process which enhances the performance of the employees to a specific extent. The employee voice not only includes all the employees, but also involves the various stakeholders related to the organization to effectively improve and manage the arrangements which already exist in the internal business environment. In other words, employee voice is the practice which satisfies the employee needs and assists an organization to implement various strategies with the help of opinions and viewpoints of the employees and managers. In the present scenario, employee voice has become an integral role or part of the strategic improvement process implemented in organizations to enhance the quality of work and also to improve the relationship among the workers (Holley et al., 2011). In recent times, almost every organization gives authorization to their employees to participate in various decision-making programs to enhance the level of internal communication process existing within the organizational participants and to omit the conflicts and the complexities among the employees and the employers within the company. At present, a few big as well as small companies are implementing this process of employee voice to increase their level of productivity and performances contributed by their workers. Many of the companies in today’s world have implemented certain policies and rules as well as regulations to develop the process of employee voice. In addition, the employees or the workers have been given importance for being a part of the organization. This has been proved to be an important initiative taken by the organizations for their workplace. Employee voice is the part of employee relation and employee management, which increases the engagement of the employees, workers and the stakeholders to assist the superiors to take several decisions. Collective bargaining is a part of the employee voice practice which is also a process of involving various organizational participants’ say in specific matters. According to Holley (2011:257), collective bargaining is a politically powerful arrangement where the managerial board decides to negotiate with their employees or with the union, so that they can have a continuous and a peaceful work process in the future (Holley et. al., 2011). To be illustrated, in relation to the American Federation of Labor, the United Steelworkers (USW) is a company which has successfully bargained various provisions to improve several facilities and the safety of workers while at work in Arcelor Mittal at 14 plants in eight states. In fact, for the on-site employees’ health and safety, they have considered appointing a few representatives and a union safety committee as well. USW also negotiated an increase in the minimum number of safety training hours per worker as well as an agreement by the company to provide flame-resistant clothing (American Federation of Labor, 2011). Examples of ‘Employee Voice’ In a report it was found that employee voice has been in trend in present but it is in action from quite long time. According to the report, Columella, who was the farmer of the first century, consulted and involved his slaves regarding certain improvements and the workers were happy to realize that their opinion was respected by the higher authority. Not only Columella, ‘The German Parliament’ also involved and engaged its employees in 1848, to avoid complexities and conflicts. In addition, an act was enforced to support the employee voice, named as ‘Labor Relation Act’. These are the various examples which indicate towards the importance and the implication of employee voice to the workplace and to various organizations. Benefits of Employee Voice Employee voice can be of two types: a voice to show a disagreement to a particular matter depicting the unwillingness or unlikeliness perceived by the organizational participants regarding certain incidence, and a voice to participate in creative planning, strategic improvements, suggestions as well as advices for organizational benefits. The second definition of voice is more popular in recent days, which involves the employees’ participation to enhance the organizational quality of work. The ‘speak of mind’ process through employee voice practices reduces the scope of negative atmosphere and negativity within the workplace. The involvement of the employee voice reduces the cost of the company as they enjoy creativity and suggestions from the internal sources, and they do not require hiring people from outside. According to a research report of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2001:47), employee voice is helpful to an organization and to the workplace as well in various ways such as it increases the level of internal communication, it improves the quality of product, it enhances the performance level of the employee, and it boosts confidence and motivation towards work. Employee voice also helps to take various decisions, such as financial arrangements, structural improvements, policy implications, strategy applications and employee relations and its management among others. Notably, these factors are all interrelated. Employees or the workers are the main resources in any organization considering the fact that without human capital no organization can run. Therefore, employee voice is a crucial as well as vital element to be focused on in workplace or in any organization, formally and informally (CIPD, 2001). Limitations of Employee Voice It is worth mentioning that there are certain drawbacks as well related to the aspect of employee voice. There are certain organizations that lack awareness regarding the implementation of the practices of employee voice. There are few organizations which still follow the Y theory of motivation and want their job to be done by their own way implementing an autocratic system of information flow. Employee voice, to a larger extent, creates problem for the organizations and its employees. In certain firms the employee voice does not perform appropriately and it causes bias, conflicts and the process of decision making turns to be a time consuming activity. The voice of the employee, if not maintained and motivated properly, can create problem for the firms, as the union leaders would raise unwanted demands after a regular intervals, the employees will seek participation in every activity of the organization and there would be many opinions and suggestions to provide. This, in turn, is most likely to create complexities related to the organizational processes within the workplace. Hence, all these factors can be regarded as the major limitations of employee voice likely to be witnessed by an organization (Marsden, 2009). Conclusion In relation to the above paper, it can be stated that the employee voice is an important and a crucial aspect of any organization and workplace. It enhances the performance level and the quality of work of any organization to a certain extent. Employee voice involves the employees and the stakeholders of a firm to place their opinion in front of the higher authority and it also allows them to take part in any kind of decision making process related to the business. Employee voice is helpful to increase the level of the internal communication and the employee relationship within the organization. It enhances the confidence, motivation and the quality of performance of the employees facilitating them to share their ideas and viewpoints among others (Marsden, 2009). However, the employee voice practice does not only facilitate an organization, it also creates problems for them. For instance, if the employee voice process is not maintained properly, it can cost the company a high risk and liabilities. The employee voice should be measured in every company and there should be specific activities determined by the high authority to allow the employees to take part. There should be certain process where the employees should take part or else, the decision making process would result in a complex and a time consuming process. In relation to the overall discussion, it can be stated that the employee voice should be a part of every organization as per the organizational requirement and their need and it should be implemented to a certain extent. References American Federation of Labor ‘Collective Bargaining’, 29 February, 2012, http://collectivebargainingfacts.com/real-life-examples-of-collective-bargaining/. CIPD (2001) Management Choice and Employee Voice. UK: CIPD Publishing. Holley, W. H. & et al. (2011) The Labor Relations Process. USA: Cengage Learning. Marsden, D., ‘Individual Employee Voice: Renegotiation and Performance Management in Public Service’, 29 February, 2012, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/3531/1/Individual_employee_voice(LSERO).pdf. Read More