Organisational values are telling employees to ‘SPEAK UP’ and ‘BE. DISRUPTIVE’, but when they actually do so, employees are either ignored or punished.  This is the paradox of Employee Voice.  I wanted to understand the experience of challenging authority from both employees and from managers viewpoint.  I think the topic is essential to progress both in communication and inclusive behaviour.  It’s not easy to tell your boss their remarks are offensive while remaining on track for your promotion.       

The results from my research surprised me.  Managers have equally as many fears about the right to employee voice as employees themselves.  Both are confused about the level of voice, where the line must be drawn, who and when is the right way to speak, and finally what are the appropriate methods to follow.
What became clear is that despite organisations encouraging their employees to speak up, they have not adequately changed the policies & systems, nor the leadership styles enough to allow such behaviour to become a reality.  In order to begin to untangle the paradox, three areas must be addressed.  These are:

Identity & voice: Your professional identify are closely tied to how you deliver & receive a challenge.
Delivery & voice: How you deliver a challenge has always been offered as a quick fix, but a closer look at who is making the rules and setting the standards is essential.
Permissions and voice: Currently only certain people have permission to speak up.   The right to ‘challenge’ remains in the hands of a select few.  Consequently there is a huge loss of intelligent voices.  This is both unfortunate and dangerous.  Awareness of the problem is the first step, then we must act.
 

Would you like to know more?