Abstract
Speaking up and confronting co-workers when they behave undesirably is important for the well-being of the personnel and organizational performance. In some organizations, a culture of silence prevails, however. Although a number of organizational environments are particularly receptive to employee voice, others are less open to voice behavior, which gives rise to a risk of undesirable behavior. Direct communication (voice) can reduce this enhanced risk. In this study, we used the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the extent to which attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control determine voice in hierarchical contexts, which, in general, tend to inhibit voice behavior. For this purpose, a survey study was conducted among military and civilian personnel of the Netherlands Ministry of Defense (n = 374). Results showed that employee voice is rather high, regardless of rank, position or gender. Structural equation modeling showed that voice was significantly predicted by perceived behavioral control and injunctive norms (i.e., what is considered to be normal in a certain working-environment). Contrary to expectations, voice was not predicted by attitude and descriptive social norms (i.e., what people see that others are doing in this respect). Stimulating confronting skills and creating a climate in which speaking up is perceived as normal may be beneficial for organizations in general and hierarchical organizations in particular.
Highlights
Speaking up, confronting co-workers, and communicating expectations and perceptions of undesired behavior are important to team and organizational performance (Qi and Liu, 2017), personnel well-being and organizational survival (Cusack, 2009)
Employee voice refers to the method used by individual employees to improve the situation and solve problems by expressing one’s own opinions and Employee Voice in a Military Context feelings (e.g., Qi and Liu, 2017)
In contrast to whistle-blowing, prosocial voice is a form of voice that is used in working situations between peers, when constructive suggestions are made to improve the situation (Van Dyne et al, 2003; Klaas et al, 2012; Liang et al, 2012)
Summary
Speaking up, confronting co-workers, and communicating expectations and perceptions of undesired behavior are important to team and organizational performance (Qi and Liu, 2017), personnel well-being and organizational survival (Cusack, 2009). Some employees stay silent, whereas others use their voice to speak up when confronted with an undesirable situation or behavior. Whistle-blowing focusses on reporting misconduct to an authority who is not the actor, e.g., reporting fraud by peers to a work supervisor or, outside the work environment, providing information to journalists (Loyens, 2013). Formal governance mechanisms, such as complaint systems and regulations, were constructed to stimulate whistle-blowing (Verhezen, 2010). Prosocial voice is an informal governance process, dependent on the resourcefulness of the human capital within the organization in terms of employees’ willingness to improve, high trust and collaborative culture (Verhezen, 2010)
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