The role of line managers in employee voice systems

2014 ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Employee Voice ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Voice Systems

Social workers as state and citizen-agents. How social workers in a German, Dutch and Flemish public welfare organisation manage this dual responsibility in practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110097
Author(s):  
Michelle van der Tier ◽  
Koen Hermans ◽  
Marianne Potting
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
National Study ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Line Manager ◽  
Cross National Study ◽  
The Relationship

Summary Professional standards state that social workers in public welfare organisations should act as state and citizen-agents. However, the literature provides little insight into how social workers navigate this dual responsibility in their daily work. To address this gap, we used Maynard-Moody and Musheno’s theory on state and citizens-agent narratives to analyse street-level practices of social workers in three local welfare organisations in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. This article explores how three specific organisational mechanisms (decision-making authority; the role of the front-line manager and the degree of specialisation) affect the ways social workers navigate both agent narratives in public welfare organisations. The data were gathered by a mixed method design of in-depth interviews and focus groups. Findings Our study shows that social workers struggle with the tensions that intrude between the state and citizen-agent narrative. We found that the extent to which both narratives are adopted by social workers is affected by a complicated interaction between the beliefs of social workers about social justice and responsiveness and the selected organisational mechanisms. Moreover, we found that critical reflection and a supportive attitude of front-line managers can help social workers to manage their double responsibility in practice. Application Our cross-national study contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between organisational mechanisms and the moral deliberations of social workers regarding their dual responsibility. It provides in-depth insights into the tensions and conflicts social workers in different contexts face daily on account of their dual responsibility.

The role of supervisors on employees’ voice behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
SuJin Son
Keyword(s):  
Social Information Processing ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Voice Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Information Processing Theory ◽  
Processing Theory ◽  
Moderating Factors ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeDrawing on social learning theory and social information processing theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how perceived supervisor’s voice behavior relates to employees’ own voice behavior both directly and indirectly through trust in supervisor. In particular, this study also investigates the moderating role of gender in the relationship between trust in supervisor and employee voice behavior. Further, this study proposes that gender moderates the indirect effect of perceived supervisor’s voice behavior on employee voice behavior via trust in supervisor.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed hypothesis was tested by using hierarchical regression analyses and Hayes’ PROCESS macro.FindingsThe results show that perceived supervisor’s voice behavior is positively related to an employee’s own voice behavior and trust in supervisors. In particular, trust in supervisors mediates the relationship between perceived supervisor’s voice behavior and employee’s own voice behavior. Additionally, the relationship between trust in supervisor and employees’ voice behavior was stronger for female employees.Originality/valueThe current study investigates employees’ perception of immediate supervisor’s voice behavior that encourages employees to speak up, thereby providing a more nuanced understanding of the factors that facilitate employee voice behavior. In particular, this study advances the understanding of how and why employees’ perception of supervisors’ voice behavior relates to employees’ voice behavior by examining the mediating and moderating factors.

scholarly journals The Mediating Role of Employee Voice Behaviour in the Relation between Despotic Leadership and Employee Outcomes

sjesr ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-373
Author(s):  
Mir Aimal Kasi ◽  
Prof. Dr Zainiab Bibi ◽  
Prof. Dr Jahanvash Karim
Keyword(s):  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Voice Behavior ◽  
Employee Outcomes ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Impact

Leaders play an essential role in the success and failure of the organization. In the past, studies examined positive leadership characteristics and behavior and their impacts on employee outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of despotic leadership on employee creativity and turnover intention with the mediating role of employee voice behavior. The sample consisted of 344 faculty members of Teacher Training Institutions in Pakistan. SPSS-25 software was used to evaluate the collected data. The results demonstrated that despotic leadership hurts employee voice behavior and creativity and has a positive impact on turnover intention. Further, the results also revealed that the voice behavior of employees has no mediation effect in the relationship between despotic leadership and employee outcomes (creativity and turnover intention). The study highlighted the importance of the topic and explored the research gap by focusing on the dark side of leadership and examined how despotic leadership harms the creativity and turnover intention of employees.

scholarly journals Making soft intelligence hard: a multi-site qualitative study of challenges relating to voice about safety concerns

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 710-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham P Martin ◽  
Emma-Louise Aveling ◽  
Anne Campbell ◽  
Carolyn Tarrant ◽  
Peter J Pronovost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Senior Leaders ◽  
Speaking Up ◽  
Academic Hospitals ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Constant Comparative Method ◽  
Organisational Intervention

BackgroundHealthcare organisations often fail to harvest and make use of the ‘soft intelligence’ about safety and quality concerns held by their own personnel. We aimed to examine the role of formal channels in encouraging or inhibiting employee voice about concerns.MethodsQualitative study involving personnel from three academic hospitals in two countries. Interviews were conducted with 165 participants from a wide range of occupational and professional backgrounds, including senior leaders and those from the sharp end of care. Data analysis was based on the constant comparative method.ResultsLeaders reported that they valued employee voice; they identified formal organisational channels as a key route for the expression of concerns by employees. Formal channels and processes were designed to ensure fairness, account for all available evidence and achieve appropriate resolution. When processed through these formal systems, concerns were destined to become evidenced, formal and tractable to organisational intervention. But the way these systems operated meant that some concerns were never voiced. Participants were anxious about having to process their suspicions and concerns into hard evidentiary facts, and they feared being drawn into official procedures designed to allocate consequence. Anxiety about evidence and process was particularly relevant when the intelligence was especially ‘soft’—feelings or intuitions that were difficult to resolve into a coherent, compelling reconstruction of an incident or concern. Efforts to make soft intelligence hard thus risked creating ‘forbidden knowledge’: dangerous to know or share.ConclusionsThe legal and bureaucratic considerations that govern formal channels for the voicing of concerns may, perversely, inhibit staff from speaking up. Leaders responsible for quality and safety should consider complementing formal mechanisms with alternative, informal opportunities for listening to concerns.

Employee Voice, Employee Involvement, and Organizational Change Readiness: Mediating Role of Commitment-to-Change and Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 227853372110439
Author(s):  
Rama Krishna Gupta Potnuru ◽  
Rohini Sharma ◽  
Chandan Kumar Sahoo
Keyword(s):  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Employee Involvement ◽  
Change Readiness ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Commitment To Change ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

This study explores the antecedents for organizational change readiness for altering the status quo and empirically validates few potent tools which facilitate change. By drawing on change management literature, this study examines the influence of employee voice (EV) and employee involvement (EI) on commitment-to-change (CTC), considering the latter as a mediating variable in the relation between antecedent human resources practices (EV and EI) and organizational change readiness (OCR). Subsequently, the moderating role of transformational leadership was analyzed on these posited relationships. The hypotheses proposed in the research model are tested on a sample of 516 employees from an Indian public sector organization, applying Baron and Kenny’s (1986) technique for establishing mediation and Ping’s approach to moderated structured equation modeling for moderation. The findings suggest that CTC partially mediates the relationship between EV and OCR, but it does not mediate between EI and OCR. Likewise, the study results also empirically validate that the relationship between EV and CTC is enhanced if leadership is transformational, also the hypothesis positing the moderating role of transformational leadership between EI and CTC was supported.

Diversity Training in Organizations

2014 ◽  
pp. 1151-1165
Author(s):  
David McGuire ◽  
Nicola Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Diversity Training ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Line Managers ◽  
Hierarchical Levels ◽  
Valuing Diversity

Diversity training is an area of growing interest within organizations. As organizations and society become more culturally diverse, there is a need to provide training across all hierarchical levels to make individuals more aware of and sensitized to elements of difference. Managing and valuing diversity is becoming increasingly important to delivering higher levels of performance and creativity, enhancing problem solving and decision-making, and gaining cultural insights into domestic and overseas markets. As facilitators of diversity training, line managers are increasingly tasked with the important role of equipping employees with the skills and competencies to work effectively in diverse multicultural teams. Consequently, this chapter looks at the mechanics of how diversity is discussed and delivered in organizations. It explores the necessity of diversity training in safeguarding and respecting individual identity and in fostering more welcoming inclusive workplaces.

Interpersonal antecedents to employee upward voice: mediating role of psychological safety

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 1510-1525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sriji Edakkat Subhakaran ◽  
Lata Dyaram
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Psychological Safety ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Voice Behavior ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Manager Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Despite the increasing prominence of employee voice in organizational innovation and productivity, employees continue to struggle to influence matters that affect them at work. The purpose of this paper is to model work group context and manager behavior as the predictors of employee upward voice. Further, a mediating role of employee psychological safety is examined in this link. Design/methodology/approach With data from 575 employees representing various technology firms in India, the authors test the hypothesized relationships using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings Results indicate coworkers upward voice and manager pro-voice behavior to significantly impact employee upward voice with a mediating impact of psychological safety. This implies that perceived psychological safety plays a significant role in explaining the impact, coworkers and manager behavior would have on regulating employee upward voice. Originality/value This study contributes to the employee voice literature from an Indian context, where upward communication is culturally discouraged.

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