Employer‐Sponsored Voice Practices in South Korea: When do Employees Believe it Is Worth Speaking up?

As the representative and maintainer of employees’ rights and interests, union plays an important role in solving the actuality that employees won’t say a word even though their opinions and suggestions can make a difference. However, most of the existing studies only focus on the direct relationship between union practice and employee voice, and few scholars have explored the influence mechanism of union practice on employee voice. Guided by the three-pronged approach of the theory of planned behavior, we integrate the typical variables from previous studies on the influencing factors of employee voice, and establish the framework of the joint effect of psychological safety, voice efficacy and felt obligation for constructive change on employee voice, in order to reveal the black box” between union practice and employee voice. Based on the data of 368 employees in 46 enterprises from Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong provinces, this paper uses structural equation to test the research model. It arrives at the main findings as follows: union practice has a significant positive influence on employee voice, which means the higher the level of union practice is, the more inclined employees are to voice. In addition, psychological safety, voice efficacy and felt obligation for constructive change mediate the relationship between union practice and employee voice. That is to say, union practice can not only improve employees’ psychological safety by protecting their legitimate rights and interests, enhance employees’ voice efficacy through activities such as reflecting reasonable suggestions to the enterprise, freeing them from worries, but also inspire employees’ felt obligation for constructive change, so as to promote employee voice. This empirical research contributes to the literature in three important aspects. Firstly, it verifies the promoting effect of union practice on employee voice, enriches the research on the influencing factors of employee voice, and further confirms the theoretical value of union practice as an independent variable, providing some new ideas for the future research on employee voice behavior and union practice. Secondly, this study explains the specific process of union practice influencing employee voice from the perspective of planned behavior theory, making up for the lack of the influence mechanism between union practice and employee voice. Lastly, it promotes the integration of theories and achievements in the research fields such as labor relations, human resource management and organizational behavior, provides theoretical support for enterprises to strengthen the cooperation with union, and impulses the construction of harmonious labor relations.

PurposeThe study uses a meta-analysis method to explore the relationship between authoritarian leadership/abusive supervision and employee voice.Design/methodology/approachA meta-analysis of 354 articles (427 effect sizes) were conducted (N = 169,127) with a structural equation model.Findings(1) Direct effect studies showed that abusive supervision/ authoritarian leadership negatively affected employees’ promotive/prohibitive voice, among which authoritarian leadership is the explanation for promotive and prohibitive voices being stronger than that of abusive supervision. (2) Meta-analytic structural equation model shows that authoritarian leadership and abusive supervision reduce employees’ psychological safety and voice efficacy by weakening leadership–member exchange (LMX), inhibiting employee voice; they can reduce employees’ psychological safety and voice efficacy by weakening the relationship between superiors and subordinates guanxi (SSG) and reduce employee voice. Among them, authoritarian leadership has a greater effect on LMX than SSG, and abusive supervision has a greater impact on LMX than that of SSG. LMX has a greater impact on employees’ psychological safety than SSG, and SSG has a greater impact on employees’ voice efficacy than LMX.Originality/valueThe research reveals the relationship between authoritarian leadership/abusive supervision and employee voice and provides a reference for improving the leader channel of voice.

Crowdfunding is an innovative means of financing entrepreneurial initiatives. This study explores the effect of signaling on the crowdfunding performance of social economy organizations (SEOs) in South Korea. Analyzing 677 reward‐based crowdfunding projects by SEOs, we found that signaling social purpose, economic purpose, and organizational information were likely to be related to performance. In addition, signals reflecting an isomorphism akin to that of SEOs' identity were also positively correlated with crowdfunding performance. These findings contribute to the literature by offering insights about the effect of signals of SEOs on crowdfunding and demonstrating that fundraiser characteristics may influence crowdfunding performance.

Despite a lack of good scientific evidence for their benefit, Canadians take a lot of natural health products (NHPs). The objectives of this study were to determine patients' perception of the efficacy, safety and quality of NHPs and to characterize NHP use. A standardized, 18-question survey was distributed to the general public through a variety of methods. A total of 326 individuals completed the survey. Eighty-five percent of respondents take 1 or more NHPs. Forty-seven percent agreed/strongly agreed that NHPs are safer than prescription medications and 24% disagreed/strongly disagreed that prescription medications are more effective than NHPs. Three-quarters of respondents agreed/strongly agreed that health care providers should recommend NHPs more often, as most stated they preferred to take an NHP for both a minor ailment (82%) and chronic medical condition (60%). Respondents used 124 different NHPs, most commonly vitamin D, vitamin B and magnesium. Respondents purchased NHPs primarily from health/vitamin stores (66%) and accessed the Internet for information about them (64%). Younger, female respondents were more likely to take NHPs. Patients appear to be comfortable foregoing education from health care professionals about the benefits and risks of NHPs. Patients' comfort with self-prescribing NHPs seems to stem from a perception of general efficacy and quality with little to no concern about harm and appears to be strongly influenced by lay sources of information. Most respondents take 1 or more NHPs, preferring to use NHPs over prescription medications for minor and chronic health concerns seemingly based on a perception of safety and quality.

To examine the association between components of safety climate and psychosocial hazards with safe work behaviours and test the moderating effects of psychosocial hazards on the safety climate-safety performance relationships. The effects of a strong safety climate on safety performance are well cited, however, the conditions that have an impact on this relationship warrant attention. While the psychosocial hazards commonly reported by nurses are predictors of well-being and job attitudes, evidence suggests that these may also place boundaries on the effects of safety climate on safe work practices. This study used a cross-sectional design to collect data from 146 nurses. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods in 2017. Nurses completed an online questionnaire and received a $5 e-gift card as compensation. SPSS v.23 and PROCESS v3.0 were used to analyse the data. A strong safety climate was positively associated with nurses' safety performance. While psychosocial hazards did not predict safety performance, they did moderate the safety climate-performance relationship. High levels of perceived stressors weakened the association between promoting two-way safety communication, the use and implementation of procedures to promote safe work practices and management's endorsement of health and safety with safe work performance. The positive effects of safety climate on nurses' safety performance are contingent on the levels of psychosocial hazards nurses experience. When aiming to improve safety performance among nurses, it is important for efforts to also focus on the psychosocial conditions of the work environment.

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for employees to communicate and share their opinions. Yet, there are still some gaps in the social media use research. We investigated leader–member exchange and voice efficacy mediation of social media use on employee voice behaviours. The study sample comprised 359 Chinese environmental protection employees and their 79 leaders. PROCESS model regression results showed that social media use had a significant positive influence on leader–member exchange, employee voice efficacy, and on voice behaviour. Both leader–member exchange and employee voice efficacy partly mediated the influence of social media use on employee voice behaviour. Leader–member exchange mediated the relationship between social media use and employee’s voice behaviours were greater than that of employee voice efficacy. Findings align with social exchange theory and social cognitive theory in that leader–member exchange and voice efficacy played important roles in the relationship between social media use and employee voice behaviour. From these findings, we suggest that organisations should provide timely services and support (social media tools), set exemplary leadership in social media usage, and foster open communication to improve employee voice.

This study compared the influencing factors affecting safety behavior and perception between main contractor managers (CMs) and subcontractor workers (SWs) at Korean construction sites. The safety level, policies, and management capabilities of the main contractor are closely related to the safety behavior of the SWs since CMs have a key role in ensuring work order authority and safety responsibility during the work process. To compare the difference in safety behavior between CMs and SWs, ten hypotheses were prepared, and surveying was conducted. Using the responses of 1219 CMs and 1191 SWs, a frequency analysis, intensive validity analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were performed; discriminant validity was verified; and a structural equation model was constructed and compared. The results showed that the factors affecting safety behaviors and perceptions were significantly different between CMs and SWs. The WSB (workers’ safety behavior) for CMs was affected, from most to least, by the MSP (manager’s safety perception; 0.382), incentives (0.166), WSP (workers’ safety perception; 0.143), and the MSB (manager’s safety behavior; 0.134). However, for SWs, the WSB was affected, from most to least, by the MSP (0.440), WSP (0.184), the MSB (0.130), and incentives (0.083). Awarding an incentive as a way to encourage safe behavior is an important influencing factor affecting safety behavior for CMs, while workers’ safety perception (WSP) is an important factor for SWs. The results can contribute to the implementation of effective safety and accident prevention activities at construction sites by comparing the influencing factors for the safety behaviors and perceptions of CMs and SWs, which can increase the effectiveness of the safety climate and reduce the possibility of accidents.

Quality of life as a mediating factor in the relationship between fatigue and perception of safety among critical care nurses in the United Arab Emirates

Although the important roles of psychological safety on voice behavior have been empirically supported, not much attention has been drawn on the critical question —a boundary condition for when psychological safety is particularly less helpful. Drawing on implicit voice theory (Detert & Edmondson, 2011), which explains about the voice-reluctant phenomenon in organizations as the “taken-for-granted rules of self-censorship”, this study suggests psychological safety is less important antecedent of voice behavior of employees culturally hardwired to be reticent. Using survey data from 342 full-time employees working at diverse organizations in South Korea, this study tests how cultural value orientation moderates the relationships between psychological safety and voice. Finally, the results suggest that the perception of psychological safety would not be sufficient to lead voice even more with employees high in power distance orientation, as the power distance orientation increases self-censorship. Study concludes with a discussion of the areas in need of future examination.

Human resource (HR) managers’ commitment to their occupation (HR) leads to the proper delivery and implementation of HR practices and, therefore, is deemed as a critical factor for the success of HR practices. Based on sociocognitive, human capital, and signaling theories, this study examines: (a) HR managers’ own and their chief HR officer's (CHRO) HR‐specific human capital as antecedents of their commitment to HR, and (b) the mediating mechanism through which the CHRO’s HR‐specific human capital positively influences HR managers’ commitment to HR. Based on 146 HR managers from 146 organizations in South Korea, the findings of the current study suggest that HR managers with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital and those working with CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital tend to have higher levels of commitment to HR. In addition, CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital positively influence HR managers’ commitment to HR by signaling to them that HR and its function are valued and cared about by their organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with study limitations and further research directions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The purpose of this study is to identify diverse factors that positively and negatively affect a workplace and to suggest a model for great places to work in South Korean organizational contexts. The research questions guiding the study are (a) What are the most desirable characteristics of a great place to work? and (b) What are the most undesirable characteristics of a bad place to work? An online survey and mobile application with two questions asking about the components of the most desirable and undesirable characteristics of workplaces were distributed to 1,500 randomly selected job seekers and currently employed persons in various organizations in South Korea. Out of the 1,500 surveys sent, 786 people responded (a response rate of 53%). Based on the survey data, the study identified various factors that positively and negatively affect people's perceptions of a great or bad place to work, including employee welfare, pay, working hours, work environments, and interpersonal relationships. From an in-depth analysis, the study proposes a model for great places to work in South Korea. Discussions and implications for practice and future research are included.

Background: Use of herbal medicines is common among patients with type 2 diabetes in Kenya. Studies on patient-reported efficacy and safety of these medicines are lacking. Aims: To determine and compare satisfaction with safety and efficacy of medicines among patients with type 2 diabetes on herbal and conventional glucose-lowering agents. Study Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Place and Duration of Study: Outpatient diabetes clinics at Kenyatta National Hospital and New Life Herbal Clinic in Nairobi, Kenya. The study was carried out between March 2019 and December 2021. Methodology: We recruited 80 patients with type 2 diabetes on conventional glucose lowering agents at Kenyatta National Hospital and 37 patients on herbal antidiabetic therapies at New Life Herbal Clinic. A general questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the participants. Treatment Satisfaction with Medicines Questionnaire was used to assess patient satisfaction with medicines. The Chi-square test was performed to compare the proportions of responses in the two groups. Mann -Whitney U test was used to compare the domain scores at the two study sites. Linear regression analysis was used to identify the determinants of satisfaction with side effects and efficacy of antidiabetic treatments. Results: The median score on the side effects domain in patients on herbal medicines was 100 [70.83-100] compared to 20.83[0-66.67] among those treated at Kenyatta National Hospital (p<0.001). Patients treated with conventional medicines had higher scores on the efficacy of medicines domain (100 [83.33-100]) compared to 75 [70.83-100] at the herbal clinic(p=0.006). Treatment at the herbal clinic was associated with significant improvement in satisfaction with side effects of medications (3.144 scores (95% CI=2.534, 3.755, p<0.001). Other significant determinants of satisfaction with side effects were distance from healthcare facility (0.518 scores (95% CI=0.065, 0.970), p=0.025), experiencing tingling sensations (-2.251 scores (95% CI=-3.348, -1.154, p=<0.001), infrequent HbA1c monitoring (-0.877 scores (95% CI=-1.402, -0.352), p=0.001), sweating (1.278 scores (95% CI=0.527, 2.029, p<0.001) , numbness (1.045 scores (95% CI=0.285, 1.805, p=0.007). Treatment with inhaled corticosteroids reduced satisfaction in the side effects domain by -1.609 scores (95% CI= -2.750,-0.468, p=0.006). Significant reductions in satisfaction with efficacy of medications scores was associated with presence of comorbidities (-2.559 scores (95% CI=-3.382- -1.736), p<0.001), treatment with Prunus africana (-1.433 scores ,95% CI=-2.246- -0.620, p<0.001), concurrent use of herbal and conventional glucose-lowering agents (-0.418 scores, (95% CI=-0.783- -0.052), p=0.025) and use of Apium graveolens ( -0.878 scores, (95% CI=-1.589- ,-0.168)), p=0.015). Conclusion: The study findings highlight significant differences in patients’ perception of safety and efficacy of herbal and conventional type 2 diabetes treatments. Treatment at the herbal clinic, accessibility to healthcare and patient symptoms were significant determinants of patient satisfaction with side effects of medications. Presence of comorbidities and treatment with herbal drugs led to a decline in patients’ perception of efficacy of their antidiabetic treatments.

This study contributes to research on voice behavior by identifying the social context that can create positive effects of voice behaviors in the side of employees. Voice to employees can have a significant impact on continuous job engagement depending on the results of communication with the leader. Although the voice research so far presupposes the positive effect of employee voice, in fact, little attention has been paid to when voice can lead to a positive result for employees. The current research attempts to fill this research gap by exploring a social boundary condition between employee voice and job engagement. This study examines that voice can lead to constructive results when leaders try to understand the viewpoints or thoughts contained in employee voice. At the same time, this study also suggests that employees who try to speak up can also get positive results when they try to understand the thoughts or viewpoints contained in the leader's voice feedback. This study proposes that the leader’s perspective taking on employee voice and employees’ perspective taking on the leader’s voice feedback serves as a social contextual contingency for the desirable effect of employee voice on job engagement, respectively. Using the data from a sample of 162 employees of a financial service company in South Korea, I found that only when employees perceived high levels of perspective taking of the leader on their voice, employee voice was significantly and positively related to job engagement. This finding highlights the important moderating role the leader’s perspective taking plays in the process where voice leads to job engagement at work. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Purpose Food production and consumption increasingly contribute to environmental and health-related concerns leading consumers to adopt new eating behaviors which further align with their values. This study aims to identify how social and internal factors influence consumers’ self-expressive benefits and perceptions of response efficacy resulting in intentions toward plant-based food decisions. Design/methodology/approach Stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, signaling theory and protection motivation theory (PMT) provided a theoretical framework for the conceptual model. A total of 627 responses were collected via a questionnaire and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings The results revealed that social factors (social media and peer influence) and internal factors (environmental, animal welfare and health concerns) had an effect on perceptions of response efficacy. Of the above only environmental concern did not influence self-expressive benefits while the rest had a significant effect. Both self-expressive benefits and response efficacy positively influenced intentions to purchase plant-based food. Practical implications The present findings offer valuable insights for restaurant operators aiming to enhance their business by offering plant-based food options. Given the significant impact of social factors on consumers’ self-expressive benefits and response efficacy, restaurant operators should prioritize communication with potential and former customers through social media platforms. Originality/value This study enriches the understanding of the motivations underlying the adoption of plant-based diets by integrating insights from SOR, Signaling and PMT theories, thereby providing valuable implications for both theory and practice relating to dietary behavior.

Employee voice has been studied across a diverse range of disciplines, generating an extensive body of literature on the topic. However, its conceptualization across the disciplines has differed, resulting in a lack of integrative theories and frameworks on employee voice. The main objective of this paper is to conduct a multi-disciplinary review of the academic research on employee voice, to show where there is an opportunity to adopt and adapt the findings and research on employee voice within alternate disciplines, and to demonstrate how this may lead to a common conceptualization of employee voice. This review focuses on an analysis of the Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior disciplines’ conceptualization of employee voice, beginning with the identification of where the two disciplines diverged in their concept and study of employee voice. Further, it maps their commonalities and differences, on the basis of motive, content, mechanism, target and management of voice. Finally, it identifies opportunities to incorporate the alternate disciplinary perspective and proposes a conceptual model that acknowledges both formal and informal voice. It is proposed that the consideration of formal and informal employee voice in future studies will enable the integration of voice research within the Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior disciplines, which in turn will assist in the development of a holistic framework on employee voice.