Employee Voice, Intention to Quit, and Conflict Resolution: Evidence from Australia

Abstract

The authors provide novel insights on employee voice and employees’ intentions to quit after conflict situations. They analyze a survey of employees in Australia to consider two research questions: What are the relationships between employee voice at work, dispute resolution, and intention to quit? Does the type of dispute affect these relationships? Findings show that employee voice is associated with successful dispute resolution, which reduces employees’ intentions to quit. Further, employee voice has the additional benefit of directly reducing intentions to quit, besides its indirect effect of helping to resolve disputes at work. Results also indicate that regardless of the level of voice at work, those who report bullying claims are less likely to find resolution. The authors provide recommendations for improving workplace dispute resolution that they believe offer mutual gains for stakeholders.

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining in Global Supply Chains: A Research Agenda

“…Fifth, the absence of unions in most supplier factories in many countries has led to initiatives such as nonunion worker committees that do not quite result in providing worker voice . Decades of labor relations research in multiple industries and countries show that when managers and workers collaborate through legally mandated workplace institutions (apart from unions) such as “works councils” (common in most European countries) or labor management committees, workers are able to voice their concerns regarding working conditions, but also provide suggestions for improving production processes (see Van Gramberg et al, 2020; and Katz, 1993 for a review of this research). Similarly, safety and health committees, often mandated by law in most countries allow worker input into decisions regarding safety at work, thus improving working conditions.…”

Treating top management team conflicts through employee voice for reducing intentions to quit: moderating role of union instrumentality

“…It ultimately creates a wrong image of the organizations causing dissatisfaction among employees and an increased turnover rate (Frenkel et al , 2013). EV is a prominent factor in this scenario as it can play an essential role in generating the intentions to quit Van Gramberg et al (2020) and directly benefits from reducing employee turnover and quit intentions (Van Gramberg et al , 2017). It helps dispute resolution (Van Gramberg et al , 2017).…”

“…Recent studies show a significant increase in satisfaction when employees are involved in the decision-making processes. According to Van Gramberg et al (2020), “the importance of employee voice as a precondition for effective conflict resolution and, in turn, on employee intentions to quit.” This element is crucial from the perspective of the manufacturing sector in which a wrong decision can halt production and significantly impact profitability (Hagemeister and Volmer, 2018). The manufacturing sector is the backbone of every country and most of the organizations in these businesses face problems in human resource management (Morrison, 2014).…”

“…Union instrumentality (UI) may affect the production, and therefore, there is no option for the leadership but to allow the employees to speak for their problems. Van Gramberg et al (2020) cited the words of Lipsky et al (2014) to remind us that “the handling of workplace conflict in the US has changed dramatically over the past four decades.” The USA’s manufacturing sector has significantly made amendments in the policies to give more importance to their employee. Due to increasing internal conflicts are unbearable for the manufacturing sector in the current business environment (Chen and Hou, 2016).…”

“…Liu et al (2009) cited in their article of Amason (1996) that conflict theorists and researchers have agreed upon the two types of TMT conflicts and labeled them as cognitive and affective conflict (AC). Of course, analyzes of workplace conflict highlight the increasing incidence of individual, deviant behavior, absenteeism, illness and covert uncooperative or counterproductive behavior and employment rights cases (Baharom et al , 2018; Iqbal et al , 2018; Van Gramberg et al , 2020). These wonders emphasize the need for research on employees’ views of conflict resolution.…”