The complexities of employee voice within a multiculturally diverse aged care workforce setting

Abstract

The study of employee voice has primarily focused on mainstream settings (the public sector, manufacturing and larger organisations) within Western countries, where the design of employee voice mechanisms occurs within the context of standard employees (e.g. white, Anglo-Saxon and heterosexual persons) (Greene 2015, Finding a Voice at Work? New Perspectives on Employee Relations, 67–91). This article explores the challenges of managing voice within a residential aged care setting in Australia and seeks to understand how a multiculturally diverse workforce, characterised by culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) individuals, interprets a range of voice mechanisms provided by management and the factors that influence their use. We present qualitative data from 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with employees, management and key support staff. We show that managers tend to emphasise downward communication more than voice and that all workers, regardless of their cultural background, perceived barriers to speaking up. Despite general support for voice within the organisation from all stakeholders, our research shows that organisational factors such as budgetary constraints shrunk the voice agenda and created a culture in which employees feared raising issues and concerns. Furthermore, we found that cultural, language and literacy issues associated with such a workforce added a degree of complexity to employee voice and that voice could be muted due to these factors. Our research provides an opportunity to rethink the voice literature by drawing on the diversity literature in the context of multiculturally diverse workforce settings, highlighting missed opportunities for inclusive voice practices.