Employee Voice and Mutual Gains

Abstract

This paper addresses the question, ‘Do mutual gains to employer and employee result from non-union employees’ exercise of voice?’ Based upon the findings reported herein, the basic answer to this question is “yes.” In particular, about two-thirds of a large sample of U.S-based nonunion companies that responded to a 2007 survey indicated that they had one or another type of ADR system in place; the annual employee usage—grievance filing—rate under these systems over a five year period was 13.5 percent; top executives in four of these nonunion businesses indicated through intensive interviews that the benefits derived from their respective ADR systems substantially exceeded their associate costs; and a large sample of employees in these same four businesses indicated through survey responses that the benefits derived from their businesses’ respective ADR systems substantially exceeded their costs. Theoretically and methodologically, these findings imply that mutual gains from workplace dispute resolution mechanisms and processes need not rely solely on a collective context (i.e., collective voice exercised by employees in negotiations with management); the individual rather than (or in addition to) the group is a suitable, indeed necessary, unit of analysis in identifying and determining mutual gains resulting from employee exercise of voice; and employee voice may be exercised by management as well as non-management employees, in particular under non-union ADR systems that feature broad employee coverage and usage eligibility.