Evolving Sounds: Exploring the Relationship Between Enterprise Social Networks and Employee Voice

Hedley, Claire (2015) Evolving Sounds: Exploring the Relationship Between Enterprise Social Networks and Employee Voice. In: 2nd European Conference on Social Media (ECSM 2015), 9 - 10 July 2015, Porto.

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Abstract

This paper examines the role of the Enterprise Social Network as an enabler of employee voice and argues that established conceptualisations of voice have limited explanatory power in the online arena. This is because traditional concepts focus primarily on one- or two-way communication up and down the organisational hierarchy and tend to overlook the multidirectional nature of Enterprise Social Networks. These networks impact on the development and expression of individual (and collective) voice in the workplace, but the pace of technological development has outstripped academic research on its implications for employee voice. There is therefore a pressing need to re-evaluate our conceptual approach. Only by reconstructing employee voice to take into account peer-to-peer communication will we be able to advance our understanding of the role of the Enterprise Social Network as a mechanism for voice from both an academic and practitioner perspective. The Enterprise Social Network is an emergent phenomenon which has huge potential to transform workplaces by changing the way employees collaborate, communicate, organise work, and voice their opinions and expectations. Employees’ increasing desire to use social media in their working lives means that over the next few years many organisations could be wholly reliant on their network, with the platforms becoming as essential as telephones and email. Yet since McAfee’s seminal paper (2006) on Enterprise 2.0 there has been a lack of research in the area. This paper draws upon extant literature in both Enterprise Social Networking and Employee Voice to propose a framework which reconceptualises employee voice as a multidimensional, multidirectional concept and provides conceptual clarification on its link to Enterprise Social Networking.

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