HR: Employee voice through "Upward Problem Solving"

Employee voice through "Upward Problem Solving"

Employee voice is the means by which people communicate their views to their employer. It’s the main way employees can influence matters that affect them at work.

Impact and contribution of effective voice ;

For employers	For employees
Contributes toward innovation	Increased job satisfaction
Improvement of productivity and organization.	Greater influence and better opportunities for development.

- direct communication

According to Marchington and Wilkinson (2005) participation can be differentiated into

- upward problem-solving

- representative participation

Upward problem solving essentially directs and individually-focused, often operating through face-to-face interactions between supervisors/first line managers and their staff. Some take the form of informal oral or verbal participation, whilst others are more formalized in the form of written information or suggestions.

These forms of participation also raise questions about ;

- how the financial benefits are allocated

- who makes decisions about their distribution

- how the financial and economic context impact on those decisions.

Conclusion

In practical situations; significant proportion of employees feel unable to share matters that they feel are important. Its' disadvantageous not only to their well-being, but also damaging where organizational learning, flexibility and innovation are concerned. Strong leadership and line managers have an important role in enabling employee voice. The organizational environment can also significantly impact how safe and confident individuals feel to speak up and share their ideas. People professionals need to consider how job design, organizational policies and processes, as well as values and behaviors can be developed to provide better opportunities for all employees to have a meaningful voice on matters that affect them at work.

References

CIPD. 2019. Talking about voice: employee's expereince.

[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/talking-about-voice_employees-experiences-summary_tcm18-54481.pdf. [Accessed 15 November 2019].

University of Aberdeen. 2018. Employee Voice and Participation, Contested Past, uncertain future.[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/business/blog/employee-voice-and-participation-contested-past-troubled-present-uncertain-future/. [Accessed 15 November 2019].

Budd, Gollan,Willkinson, J., 2010. New Approaches to Employee Voice and Participation in Organization. Researchgate, [Online]. 63, 3. Available at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/48381290_New_Approaches_to_Employee_Voice_and_Participation_in_Organization [Accessed 15 November 2019]

5 comments:

Anfas Shareef 18 November 2019 at 09:09
Very descriptive one with good explanation.
Sameera Madhawa Thalakotune 30 November 2019 at 20:00
Amazingly explained all the parts of the topic, Thank you
Razi Jalaldeen10 December 2019 at 03:14
Whatever the references listed should have been cited in the main text. In other words, only cited reference should be listed as references.
Rasika MBA 7 January 2020 at 07:18
Upward problem solving methods are discussed with adequate self reflection .Further it is a Bottom to Top idea flow with has reiterate the importance of communication and opportunity allocation has been discussed in the blog post .This top has many areas of HR & could be seen with Job Deign ( As you have suggested ) , Organizational culture effect on Company communication policy and this might have direct impact on Upward problem solving problems process .
Nalaka Herath17 January 2020 at 11:22
Often employee voice is the cheapest smoke alarm you can ever install in an organisation. Things often go wrong in organisations; the issue is whether you catch them before they build up to a major crisis and do significant or lasting damage.