logo image

TD Magazine Article

Member Benefit

Are You Stifling Employee Voice?

Research shows that supervisor relationships are the main factor determining whether public sector employees share ideas or remain silent.

By

Wed Jan 02 2019

Are You Stifling Employee Voice?
Loading...

When asked why she had chosen to share her idea with her supervisor, a government employee whom I'll call Chantal (all research subjects featured in this article have pseudonyms) thought about the question for a few seconds. Finally, she smiled, and the truth came out: "His leadership style when it came to me, from the very beginning, I felt he was my cheerleader. He thought I had great ideas." Conversely, when she later pondered a job in which she had not taken her ideas forward to leadership, she described a different environment. "I don't feel like anything would be done \[with my suggestions\] since my peers had already tried to get upward mobility through sharing their own," she explained. "And, I never said anything. At one point, I started looking for a job, then I would stop. The morale was bad at that point. I wasn't coming to work happy every day and just treated the job as something that needed to get done."

You've Reached ATD Member-only Content

Become an ATD member to continue

Already a member?Sign In

issue

ISSUE

January 2019 - TD Magazine

View Articles
Advertisement
Advertisement

Copyright © 2024 ATD

ASTD changed its name to ATD to meet the growing needs of a dynamic, global profession.

Terms of UsePrivacy NoticeCookie Policy