Employee voice and participation

The employee voice provides the "opportunity to have a say" within workplaces (Mowbury et al., 2015, p. 385), but is formally defined as "how employees raise concerns, express and advance their interests, solve problems, and contribute to and participate in workplace decision making" (Pyman et al., 2006, p. 543). The employee voice is often in one of two frames: the 'direct' voice; or the 'indirect or representative' voice. 

Since the 1990s, thousands of organisations across the world have developed 'high commitment', 'high performance' and 'high involvement' work systems where employees are encouraged to contribute to decision-making and continual improvement. Employee participation efforts are associated with the following benefits (Mowbury et al., 2015):

• Higher employee engagement
• Increase productivity, worker and customer satisfaction
• Strengthening of organisational culture
• Greater flexibility - No legislative/ legal requirements

From an organisational perspective, employee participation strategies are underpinned by two key motives: 1) "to eliminate employee dissatisfaction"; and 2) to "capture suggestions in order to improve business performance" (Mowbury et al., 2015, p. 387). However, these participation strategies don't usually involve a collective union voice. What they do involve are work teams, for the most part. For example: self-managed teams; quality circles; team-based problem solving; health and safety committees.

Unions are often an effective way to hear collective, representative ‘employee voice’, BUT employers and employees can - and should - provide alternative/ additional mechanisms to facilitate 'direct' voice. For example, company, works, or consultative councils, health and safety committees, joint consultative committees (union and non-union).

Unions can be very useful at helping to share power, and giving employees a voice. But more channels are better, as organisations are often not that great at listening. 

Sam

References:

Mowbray, P. K., Wilkinson, A., & Tse, H. H. (2015). An integrative review of employee voice: Identifying a common conceptualization and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 17(3), 382-400. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12045

Pyman, A., Cooper, B., Teicher, J., & Holland, P. (2006). A comparison of the effectiveness of employee voice arrangements in Australia. Industrial Relations Journal, 37(5), 543-559. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2006.00419.x