Does Voice Gap Influence Workers’ Job Attitudes and Well-Being? Measuring Voice as a Dimension of Job Quality

Abstract

This article investigates worker voice as a dimension of job quality and examines its link with job-related outcomes. We refine and test a multi-measure concept of the ‘voice gap’ to capture how much influence workers expect to have compared to what they actually have on a set of work-related issues. Analysing a survey of 1307 American workers, we find that workers distinguish between a voice gap on issues related to their own interests (‘worker-issues voice gap’) and those related to their employing organization's interests (‘organizational-strategy voice gap’). Even after controlling for other dimensions of job quality, a larger voice gap is statistically associated with lower job satisfaction and well-being, as well as higher levels of burnout and turnover intention. Additionally, we find that worker-issues voice gap has a stronger and more significant effect than an organizational-strategy voice gap. Based on these results, we recommend incorporating the voice gap measure in future worker voice research and as a practical tool for evaluating voice as a dimension of job quality.