The Role of Contextual Voice Efficacy on Employee Voice and Silence

Given recent studies have begun to question the nature of employee voice research. This paper attempts to theorize the boundaries between Organizational Behavior (OB), Human Resource Management (HRM) and Industrial and Employment Relations (I/ER) voice. Researchers examine specific organizational contexts that may influence employees' voice behavior, with OB researchers paying particular attention to the micro contextual influences of leadership behavior and psychological safety climate on individual voice behavior, HR researchers emphasizing the major role of HR practices that may facilitate employee voice; and I/ER researchers focusing more on how macro institutional supports such as unions and collective bargaining can protect employees and facilitate voice. The paper proposes a model of "contextual voice efficacy" as a bridge between these disparate literature, and develops propositions as to how OB, HR and I/ER voice mechanisms can combine together in a single model.