Perspectives on Employee Voice: A Primer for Managers

Employee voice presents opportunity for substantial benefit, but also presents substantial challenges to organizations. It is often the case that individual employees possess knowledge about organizational functioning that managers do not, and if this knowledge leads to suggestions for improvement in the form of voice, organizational functioning can be improved. This article examines research concerning employee voice behavior. We review what voice behavior is, how voice impacts organizational performance, the consequences of voice for employees, and what is currently known about how managers can best elicit employee voice.