Building Psychologically Safe Spaces

There is plenty of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effect of keeping quiet about witnessed bullying in the workplace. The impact of failing to take action when bullying is reported is also well reported. The question is: what can you, as an employer, do to create conditions conducive to employee voice; where employees feel safe to give voice to their concerns and hopes?

What is employee voice? Simply, it’s a work environment where employees feel safe to express opinions, suggestions and provide feedback freely at work, even when they know their view is not going to be popular.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), a global UK-based body that specialises in HR and people development, defines employee voice as ‘the mechanism by which people communicate their views to their employers and influence matters that affect them at work’. If we accept this definition, then we can also accept that nothing has a more negative effect on people at work than bullying. In such a situation, oppressing the employee voice is like pouring boiling oil on a raging fire.

An employee has the ability to voice their concerns and provide feedback only if the leader is intent on creating a work environment where people feel safe, included, and can be expressive. But, creating an environment – or laying down the policy – is one thing. It’s the provision of operational structures that make it possible for employee voice to sound loud and clear that really counts. Those structures include comprehensive procedures and communication channels that create open access to the organisation’s leaders.

Interestingly, researchers who have studied organisations, to get a sense of their overall well-being, have found that the same strategies that can be used to encourage employee voice can also be leveraged to lift the lid off the silent epidemic of bullying in modern organisations. This is because voice oppression, or the fear of speaking up, always comes up as a factor that allows bullying to thrive.

There are two types of employee voice: individual voice, and organisational voice. Individual voice refers to situations where individuals speak up about issues that are important to them. This category includes what is referred to as upward voice by Elizabeth Morrison, Professor of Management and Organizations at New York University Stern School of Business. Morrison explains that this is ‘when employees voluntarily communicate suggestions, concerns and information about problems to someone in a higher position in their organisation’.

Note the operative word here: voluntarily. This is crucial, because it means that employees don’t feel forced to speak up; rather, they do so of their own free will, and would speak up even in situations where the information they are communicating would be considered bad news. Upward voice is also commonly known as direct voice, because it acknowledges that employees can speak directly to their line managers or anyone else in a position of authority.

Organisational voice, on the other hand, refers to the structures and processes that are in place which employees can leverage to convey their views. These include employee surveys, which seek to help the organisation understand how the presence or absence of employee voice affects issues such as employee engagement, job satisfaction, and the extent to which employees feel included, or that they belong. Organisational voice is sometimes known as indirect voice, because rather than conveying their suggestions or insights directly to management, employees relay their thoughts, dissatisfaction and concerns via surveys or other channels that have been established for this purpose. Even then, the information seldom passes on to management unfiltered. It usually passes through intermediaries first, such as committees, or even unions and shop stewards.

A human-centred workplace encourages both individual and organisational voice, giving each equal weight because they are both two sides of the same coin. Thus, there is room for both in a speak-up culture.

For such a culture to grow and flourish, employers must reward, rather than punish, those employees who have the courage to speak up. While this might sound like common sense, it’s important to have this courage publicly acknowledged, because many people hold back out of fear of punishment, further intimidation or threats.

In line with this, leaders must make it widely known that they put people first. The best way to do this is by demonstrating, in a highly visible manner, that they are open to receiving unsolicited feedback. That word ‘unsolicited’ is key, because the feedback we hear without first requesting it is seldom positive. Leaders therefore also require courage, because it takes mettle to hear such views, and more importantly, to accept them.

Want to read more? Get your copy of Building Psychologically Safe Spaces: Safeguarding Your Workplace Against Bullying by Ngao Motsei. Published by Tracey McDonald Publishers, and available in good book stores and online.