Organizational adaptation to working from home in a crisis situation (COVID-19): the interaction between leaders' openness and followers' voice.

Introduction: We investigated the effect of time spent at home on employee voice behavior and leadership openness during Covid 19. According to DeRue's adaptive leadership theory which offers an interactionist perspective to explain adaptive organizational behavior during an environmental crisis, we proposed that in the WFH's (work from home) reduced and limited communication space, leaders, who need more feedback, will encourage employees to express their opinions and will show more willingness to listen to them. Meanwhile, employees will ask more questions and make more suggestions to alleviate uncertainty and misunderstanding. Methods: Using an online questionnaire, a cross-sectional study (N = 424) has been carried out with employees working from home for a different amount of their working time during the pandemic. Data were analyzed using structural equation models (SEM) in which the effect of leadership openness on employee voice behavior was assessed through the mediation of affective commitment, psychological safety, and intrinsic motivation. Results: The results showed that in the WFH situation, time spent in home office had a low but significant direct negative effect on promotive voice behavior. At the same time, leadership openness was growing with the amount of time spent at home. Leadership openness counteracted the negative effect of WFH on voice behavior: although leadership openness did not have a direct significant effect on voice behavior, it had a positive effect on psychological safety and work motivation which, in turn, influenced positively both promotive and prohibitive voice behavior. Employee's voice, for its part, further augmented leadership openness. Discussion: In our research we could demonstrate the contingent nature and the mutual influence patterns and feedback loops of leaders-employees exchange. In the WFH situation the openness of the leader is growing with the amount of time spent at home and with the amount of promotive voice manifested by the employee. In consent with DeRue social interactionist adaptive leadership theory, a mutually reinforcing process of leadership openness and employee voice could be demonstrated. We argue that leadership openness is a key factor to motivate employee voice behavior during WFH.

Labouring the news: Management control strategies and work intensification in the digital newsroom

Using a labour process lens, this research focuses on the structured antagonism that characterises the employment relationship. This article seeks to further our understanding of how news organisations employ control strategies to extract the labour power of journalists and achieve organisational objectives, and we pay particular attention to the role of editors in this regard. We also explore the responses of journalists as workers to managerial control which can include accommodation, resistance, compliance, or consent. The findings are based on an empirical case study of a local newspaper incorporating interviews with editors and journalists. The case study reveals how journalists' work intensified with the turn to digital content, and because of reduced staffing since COVID-19, but editors ensured high levels of productivity through distribution of digital analytics and constant monitoring.

Designing for the Embedding of Employee Voice

Previous research on employee voice has sought to design technological solutions that address the challenges of speaking up in the workplace. However, effectively embedding employee voice systems in organisations requires designers to engage with the social processes, power relations and contextual factors of individual workplaces. We explore this process within a university workplace through a research project responding to a crisis in educational service delivery arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within a successful three-month staff-led engagement, we examined the intricacies of embedding employee voice, exploring how the interactions between existing actors impacted the effectiveness of the process. We sought to identify specific actions to promote employee voice and overcome barriers to its successful establishment in organisational decision-making. We highlight design considerations for an effective employee voice system that facilitates embedding employee voice, including assurance, bounded accountability and bias reflexivity. © 2023 ACM.

Ethical leadership and its influence on employee voice behavior: role of demographic variables

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of relationship between ethical leadership and employee voice behavior. Study of employee voice behavior is important, because leaders in organizations make numerous decisions based on employees' work-related inputs which do influence the decision quality and team performance.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected through structured questionnaire from Indian organizations. Data were analysed through statistical techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.FindingsThe findings showed that ethical leadership did impact the employee voice in a positive and significant but moderate manner. The study also found no significant differences in ethical leadership and voice behavior across demographic variables such as gender, age, educational qualification and job level in the Indian context.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is conducted using single cross-sectional research design, and for better causal inferences of the relationship between various variables, future research studies may be conducted with longitudinal research design, multiple data sources and variety of industries with large sample size.Practical implicationsWith erosion of ethical values and corporate scandals, managers need to develop and display ethical leadership as employees emulate their leaders' ethical behavior because ethical leadership, or its perception, relates positively and significantly to employee voice behavior.Originality/valueThere is less study to understand ethical leadership and its influence on voice behavior in developing countries, especially in India. Ethical leadership behavior encourages employees to voice their work-related constructive opinions and concerns for improved decision-making and reduced unethical practices. Also, there is scarcity of research that explores the impact of demographic variables and this study is an effort to understand this gap.

Employee voice behavior and perceived control: Does remote work environment matter?

Important outcomes of perceived control and employee voice behavior include employee-driven innovation, increased productivity, and job satisfaction;therefore, it is essential to study if there is a difference in a remote versus an in-person work environment. The 81 participants in this study were employees at a public utilities department in a local municipal government that had worked both remotely and in-person during the peak of the covid-19 pandemic. This research also looked at the role communication modalities played for both in-person and remote work scenarios. Although these employees indicated there was no difference in perceived control and employee voice. This study's data suggests that voice behavior and perceived control are stable attitudes that are not impacted by the move from in-person to remote work. As more employees press for remote work arrangements, these data indicate that managers should not expect voice or perceived control to be impacted (negatively or positively) when employees work remotely. These participants indicated both Zoom staff meetings and Zoom one-to-one meetings with their supervisor were important, however, only Zoom one-to-one meetings with the supervisor were indicated to be satisfactory, which is not surprising during a time of social isolation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Recovering in the post-pandemic era: the role of employee voice, knowledge sharing, employee innovation, and service recovery performance in the hotel industry

Purpose: Covid-19 pandemic is perceived as one of the great disasters in history. It forced countries to impose travel restrictions and lockdowns, and it negatively influenced hotels' performance. Therefore, this article aims to provide explanations of how hotels can survive, recover and succeed in the post-pandemic period. This article focuses on the role of employee voice, knowledge sharing, and employee innovation in promoting service recovery performance. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that focuses on discussing the relationships between employee voice, knowledge sharing, employee innovation, and service recovery performance. Findings: The study suggests that employee voice is a vital element that can enhance knowledge sharing at hotels. Furthermore, knowledge sharing is proposed to encourage employees to engage in innovative behavior, which, in turn, can promote service recovery performance. Originality/value: The study provides a framework that explains a mechanism of how hotels can accelerate recovery efforts from Covid-19 repercussions by shedding light on the important role of employee voice, knowledge sharing, and employee innovation. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Promoting decent work in organisations: a sustainable HRD perspective

Today's uncertain times have led to paradigm shifts in the world of work. The disruptive nature of unforeseen events (e.g. Covid-1 9) has a harsh impact on organizations' stakeholders, including employees, society and the environment. However, these events pose tougher challenges for vulnerable and weaker workers, particularly in getting access to decent and productive employment. While catering to the changing needs of business, organizations also find it difficult to provide decent work for all and achieve their social bottom lines. This paper aims to understand what role HRD plays, especially Sustainable HRD (S-HRD), in facilitating access to decent work. Conceptual analysis of the literature revealed that S-HRD practices have the potential to promote all the dimensions of DW: employment creation, social protection, employees' fundamental rights and social dialogue. This paper is an important stepping stone in the articulation of how S-HRD can help organizations to promote decent work. The perspectives presented in this study have potential implications for HRD practitioners in understanding the application and implementation of S-HRD practices. Furthermore, managers can also take note of specific S-HRD interventions from this paper to enable decent work in their organizations.

Never 'one-size-fits-all': Mick Marchington's unique voice on voice, from micro-level informality to macro-level turbulence

Mick Marchington's contributions to employee voice, participation, and involvement are broad and deep. This scholarship is consistently distinguished by a rejection of 'one-size-fits-all' approaches in favour of complex, multi-layered understandings. We reflect on some of Marchington's key contributions to employee voice, participation, and involvement, with an emphasis on the importance of internal actors who are conditioned by diverse internal and external influences. We also illustrate the lasting importance of this approach by applying it to the COVID-19 health crisis currently unfolding.

Stages of Organizational Conscience: A Post-pandemic Urgency

In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the commotion to the economy has set the stage for unanticipated ethical dilemmas. Some researchers call the sum of these forces a perfect moral storm. Using a perceptive approach to business cases from two previous periods of severe ethical lapses in past decades and the ethical challenges posed by the “New Normal” and “Fake News,” this article attempts to form clusters of responses to Organizational Conscience based upon levels of relational activity in the form of employee voice effectiveness in moderating teleopathic intensity. Whether on the threshold of another significant lapse period or not, these clusters, or Stages of Organizational Conscience, are another tool for organizational introspection, self-examination, resilience, and innovation as organizations navigate through unprecedented ethical challenges. © Common Ground Research Networks, Ronald Rojas, All Rights Reserved.