Enhancing Employee Voice in Government: Transparency, Trust, and Cognitive Empowerment

<p>For organizational change to take root, develop, and realize the desired goals and benefits, employees are increasingly asked to be an integral part of the change process, to speak up and use their voice to point out areas to improve and ways to be more efficient. Organizations and managers must create a climate where this employee voice, a multidimensional construct comprised of promotive and prohibitive voice, is encouraged and heard, and where the employee is empowered to effect change and make improvements. Both types of voice are potent mechanisms for improving public services, and government organizations in particular, as compared to private and other businesses. This quantitative study investigates transparency, a multidimensional view of trust with cognition-based and affect-based trust, and cognitive empowerment and their relationships with both types of employee voice. The setting is a government organization that trains employees to see issues in the workplace and make changes to improve outcomes for citizens, save time and money, and improve the utilization of resources. Trust and transparency matter, until the climate supports psychological safety. Transparency and cognitive empowerment are found to be significantly related to different types of employee voice after controlling for various factors, including propensity to trust, social desirability, and psychological safety.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year

2023

Author dc:creator

• Honcoop, Jomarie Phelan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Andrew Schnackenberg
• Jane Ross
• Dennis Wittmer
• Douglas Allen
• Julia Dmitrieva
• Lisa Victoravich
• Daniel Baack

• Organizational change
• Employee voice
• Transparency
• Empowerment
• Government
• Business
• Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Other Business

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

English (eng)

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2301

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-3281