A spiral of voice? When employees speak up on internal social media
Journal of Communication Management
ISSN: 1363-254X
Article publication date: 17 September 2019
Issue publication date: 28 October 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the discursive tactics that employees use when they speak up on internal social media (ISM) to gain support for their cause, and how this can develop into a “spiral of voice” when organizational members interact with each other on ISM.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on screenshots of four months of coworker communication on ISM in a Danish bank and on semi-structured interviews with 24 employees.
Findings
Employees succeeded in speaking up and gaining support on ISM by using eight different discursive tactics. These tactics helped move organizational issues from an operational to a strategic level, thus making the issues relevant for management as well as gaining the support of other coworkers. The visibility and persistence of communication on ISM forced managers to react.
Research limitations/implications
Further research should investigate whether similar tactics and reactions occur in organizations with a less open communication culture where it might be less safe for employees to speak up.
Practical implications
Organizations need to be aware of the dynamics of the “spiral of voice” and of the way in which the visibility and persistence of communication on ISM forces managers to handle organizational issues.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore what happens when employees speak up on ISM and to propose the concept of “a spiral of voice” as an extension of the theory of “the spiral of silence” (Noelle-Neumann, 1974).
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Declaration of conflicting interests: the authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this paper. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this paper.
Citation
Madsen, V.T. and Johansen, W. (2019), "A spiral of voice? When employees speak up on internal social media", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 331-347. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-03-2019-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited