Does Having a Say Matter Only if You Get Your Way? INstrumental and Value-Expressive Effects of Employee Voice
Title:
Does Having a Say Matter Only if You Get Your Way? INstrumental and Value-Expressive Effects of Employee Voice
Author:
McFarlin, Dean B. Sweeney, Paul D.
Appeared in:
Basic and applied social psychology
Paging:
Volume 18 (1996) nr. 3 pages 289-303
Year:
1996-09-01
Contents:
Research shows that employees can have process control, decision control, or both, over work outcomes. Process control refers to the extent to which workers have a chance to express their opinions about decisions. Decision control refers to any actual degree of influence over the decision that is made. Both variables have been shown to affect procedural justice, a sense of fairness about how things are done at work, and eventual outcome satisfaction. Some claim that process control has its effect because it contributes to workers' feelings of control over the decision or outcome--the instrumentality perspective. Others claim that process control has an independent effect on procedural justice that is not mediated by perceptions of decision control--the value-expressive approach. These theorists believe that workers value having their opinion heard, independent of any increase in decision control. We present a study that examines these models in a work setting. Structural equation analyses revealed that process control did have a significant direct effect on procedural justice: having a say is not completely dependent on getting one's way. Process control also had a smaller, but still significant, indirect effect on procedural justice that was mediated by decision control. Congruence with prior research and future research implications are discussed.
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