The conceptualisation of Employee Voice in Permacrisis: A UK Perspective

Research on the topic of employment relations often adopts analytical frameworks related mainly to the concept of ‘voice’. While originally defined as the effort to effect change by Albert Hirschman, the meaning and conceptualisations of the term ‘voice’ have evolved over the years. Later writers such as Freeman and Medoff describe the concept from the point of view of union monopoly of representation, i.e., union articulation of workers’ concern. In this chapter, we present a synthesis and overview of some of the early conceptualisations of employee voice and unionism in the United Kingdom. Our goal extends beyond simply sketching or cataloguing the historical analysis around voice, to using this analysis as an instrument for understanding the current state and projecting into the future of employee voice and unionism in the United Kingdom. The chapter reveals that the concept of voice has been significantly reinvented by modern-day scholars. The chapter will heavily depend on a review of extant literature. It would, however, be impossible to synthesise the entire literature on voice in this short chapter. Hence, there will be a significant focus on the United Kingdom experience and authors, howbeit, other authors based elsewhere may be selectively included. The study concludes that though employee voice is relevant today, in most cases it only serves the interest of management and where this is not the case management hardly pays any attention to it. The study revealed further that during permacrisis, there is little or no attempt on the part of the management to attention to or implement the demand expressed in employee voice