This seminar presentation will be given by Dr Rea Prouska.

Abstract:

The study of employee voice in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across national contexts remains under-theorised and under-studied. This paper uses Kaufman’s integrative model of employee voice, and an exploratory study of 30 interviews with employees in non-unionised SMEs in the United Kingdom, Thailand and Nigeria, to explore the impact of the role of the external environment, organisational configuration, governance structure and internal organisational and employee contingencies on employee voice in SMEs. We study voice from multi-level (institutional, organisational, individual) and internationally comparative perspectives.

Findings show that the interaction between the external institutional context and internal SME context (organisational configuration, governance structure and internal contingencies) impacts voice systems and employee voice agency, and ultimately on perceived levels of voice outcome. The paper contributes to employee voice theory by offering an analysis of voice determinants specific to non-unionised SMEs from an internationally comparative perspective, presents these in a framework and explains how context affects employee voice practices in small workplaces.