Who Is Willing to Speak Up and Why? Examining Individual and Organizational Predictors of Employee Voice Behavior in Higher Education Institutions
Abstract
Employee voice behavior is central to the effectiveness, the development, and the adaptability of organizations to their environments. However, there is currently limited organizational research and knowledge on the factors that influence employee voice behaviors, especially in the context of higher education institutions. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the predictors of employee voice behaviors in institutions of higher education. Specifically, this study examines the impact of key individual and organizational factors such as alumni status, organizational commitment, work motivation, communication climate, and organizational politics on employees’ expression of promotive and prohibitive voice in higher education environments. 811 employees from a community college in the southwest of the United States participated in the study’s online survey. The data was analyzed using frequency, two one-way ANOVA, correlations, and multiple regression analyses. The results of this study show that organizational factors are more important predictors of employee voice behaviors than individual factors. In other words, organizational environments’ characteristics such as communication climate and perceived organizational politics are stronger or more important drivers of employees’ voice behaviors in academia than employee alumni status, motivation, and organizational commitment. In addition, the fact that among all the variables examined, perception of communication climate was the strongest and most important predictor of employee voice behavior, is particularly noteworthy. That result suggests that the more employees in higher education institutions perceive that the communication climate is open and welcoming—i.e., where their voice matters or can make a difference—the more likely they are to speak up.
Subject Area
Communication|Organizational behavior
Recommended Citation
Arellano, Jessie Socorro, "Who Is Willing to Speak Up and Why? Examining Individual and Organizational Predictors of Employee Voice Behavior in Higher Education Institutions" (2020). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI28262452.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI28262452