Employee Choice of Voice: A New Workplace Dynamic

Employee voice — an emerging strand of contemporary organizational communication — is quickly becoming one of the most important workplace phenomena of our time thanks, in large part, to increases and improvements in the depth and breadth of technology. Technological breakthroughs have inspired new ways for employees to voice their satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the employment place in ways that were not possible only a decade ago. Social media such as Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn as well other chat-rooms and blogs can now reach vast national and international audiences with messages that may or may not be organizationally desirable or sanctioned. The article traces the emergence of employee voice mechanisms and types, especially as the latter relates to these technology-inspired social media. The article’s central contribution is to be found on many levels including, but not limited to: helping the reader to understand how an employee’s choice for a voice mechanism is no longer the exclusive preserve of the organization they work for; reviewing the contextual organizational parameters that determine how and what a propensity of employees are likely to choose as their voice mechanisms; and recommending a strategy for developing and managing employee voice to enhance and sustain an organization’s competitive advantage.