The Voice Cultivation Process: How Team Members Can Help Upward Voice Live on to Implementation

Abstract

The upward voicing of ideas is vital to organizational performance. Yet power differences between voicers and those with authority may result in valuable ideas being overlooked. In this ethnographic, 31-month longitudinal study of a multi-disciplinary team in the healthcare sector, we examine how upwardly voiced ideas can endure to reach implementation. Of 208 upwardly voiced ideas, most were rejected in the moment, but 49 reached implementation despite appearing to be initially rejected. These ideas were kept alive by other team members who later drew upon and revived the initial ideas through what we call the voice cultivation process. We detail this process and describe five pathways through which voiced ideas stayed alive to reach implementation by overcoming different forms of resistance. We illustrate how the allyship of others can help voice live on beyond its initial utterance to reach implementation and generate change, even when the person who initially spoke up is no longer on the team or advocating for the idea. By reconceptualizing voice as a collective, interactional process rather than a one-time dyadic event, this paper develops new theory on how employees can help one another’s voice be heard to positively impact their teams and organizations.

Patient engagement in system redesign teams: a process of social identity

“…Studies have investigated ways patients view their role in redesign teams, highlighting patients' interest in the process of improving care (Pomey et al, 2015), and challenges they may face in achieving sufficient material, technical, and sociocultural support for patient participation (Alidina et al, 2021), in navigating relationships with health-care professionals (Gagliardi et al, 2008) and in aligning with the goals and objectives of improvement projects . Other researchers have developed frameworks and described the processes used by clinical practices to engage patients and promote their upward voice (Satterstrom et al, 2021). Prior research has also described patients' role in innovation teams as moving through different stages of a patient engagement continuum, highlighting various factors at the patient, organizational and societal level that can influence how patient engagement manifests, but do not examine the specific pathways or mechanisms at the team-level that elucidate the ways in which the patient's role may change (Carman et al, 2013).…”

“…, 2008) and in aligning with the goals and objectives of improvement projects (Renedo and Marston, 2015). Other researchers have developed frameworks and described the processes used by clinical practices to engage patients and promote their upward voice (Satterstrom et al , 2021). Prior research has also described patients' role in innovation teams as moving through different stages of a patient engagement continuum, highlighting various factors at the patient, organizational and societal level that can influence how patient engagement manifests, but do not examine the specific pathways or mechanisms at the team-level that elucidate the ways in which the patient's role may change (Carman et al.…”

A time to consider, a time to deliver: The independent and interactive effects of regulatory mode on innovative work behavior

“…For instance, generated ideas often go unpromoted or unrealized, whether due to limited resources for implementation (Sonenshein, 2014), resistance from others who are averse to change or who see ideas as a threat to their image (Isaakyan et al, 2021; Janssen, 2004), or an inability to sufficiently persuade potential sponsors (Perry‐Smith & Mannucci, 2017). To this latter point, Satterstrom et al (2020) found that most ideas tend to be ignored, and that team members serve an invaluable role in keeping ideas “alive” into later implementation. Ng et al (2020) similarly theorized that although employees are often encouraged to generate and share ideas, most are either of poor quality or are so innovative that they are seen as disruptive and ultimately impractical (Anderson et al, 2014; Škerlavaj et al, 2014).…”

Status-Authority Asymmetry between Professions: The Case of 911 Dispatchers and Police Officers

“…This puts the trustworthiness of that individual officer on-the-line in front of the immediate peer group with whom he interacts on an everyday basis, which in turn prompts a reduction in subsequent noncompliance (cf. Satterstrom et al, 2021).…”