Employee voice in the Asia Pacific

Abstract

This introduction introduces the special issue on employee voice in the Asia Pacific. Whilst there is an extensive literature on employee voice in western countries in regions such as Europe and the United States, we know less about the state of employee voice in the Asia Pacific regions. One of these gaps relates to how the institutional factors as well as national cultural factors influence the employee voice arrangements and mechanisms. While we have some understanding of how national contextual factors can influence employee voice behaviour, such as through leadership behaviour and supervisor‐subordinate relationships, there is still much to be understood with regard to how the different Asia Pacific cultural characteristics will influence voice. With governance and representative structures of voice embedded in particular institutional contexts there are significant differences not only between Asia Pacific economies and the rest of the world, but also between and within the Asia Pacific economies themselves.