chapter 12
....................................................................................................................................................EMPLOYEE VOICE
SYSTEMS
....................................................................................................................................mick marchington
12.1 Introduction
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Employeevoice appears to be the latest in a long line of terms used to describe
employment practices designed to allow workers some ‘say’ in how their
organizations are run; previous variants include worker participation, industrial
democracy, employee involvement, and empowerment. The term is rarely deWned
precisely, and voice tends to incorporate HR practices of both a direct and
an indirect form, in unionized and non-union settings, and in task-related and
oV-line teams (Millward et al. 2000 ; Bryson 2004 ). Others have used the term to
refer to grievance processes and employee complaints about management (BoroV
and Lewin 1997 ; Luchak 2003 ), and even so-called ‘silent’ forms of voice such as
sabotage, absence from work, or shirking (Benson 2000 ; Hyman 2005 ). This wide
range of uses makes it diYcult to assess whether ‘voice’ actually marks a departure
from the initiatives that have gone before or whether it is nothing more than ‘old
wine in new bottles.’
Traditionally, voice has been used primarily in relation to union-based and
broader forms of participation, rather than direct employee involvement,
because this was seen as the principal way in which workers could gain inXuence
at work (Freeman and MedoV 1984; Millward et al. 2000 ). More recently, analysis
has shifted to examine non-union models of indirect voice, such as through joint
consultative committees and works councils (Dundon et al. 2004 ; Haynes et al.
2005 ). Given space limitations, rather than provide yet another review of