Dr. Kevin W. Rockmann
School of Management
George Mason University

Dr. Ethan R. Burris
McCombs School of Business
University of Texas at Austin

Research Proposal on Employee Motivation and Voice

There is a paradox of employee motivation given the state of the current economy.  When times are down, individuals are discouraged, fearful, and thinking about things other than work.  Yet it is critical, especially in lean times, that organizations have a highly motivated workforce who support the functions of the organization and strive to achieve both short-term targets and long-term goals.  Those employees not only have to work hard on what they’ve always done, but they also may have to pick up slack in other areas of the organization.  This paradox is perhaps most evident in cases where leaders both need to be fully informed about problems and opportunities facing their organizations, yet are increasingly reliant on their employees to provide the information needed to make appropriate, timely adjustments.  Though organizations can resort to coercion and fear as tactics to motivate job performance, rarely do they encourage employees to notice problems and opportunities for improvement, generate creative solutions and communicate them effectively to key decision-makers.

Our interest is studying how organizations can maintain and even encourage employees at all levels to go beyond the formal role requirements of their jobs and speak up with improvement-oriented comments - that is, to exercise their voice.  The fundamental process underlying this research is the decision by each employee to engage in these discretionary behaviors.  For example:
 

·        Cathy is unhappy with the new HR policy and thinks there is a way to improve it, so she agrees to help the HR representative draft a new proposal and circulate among department managers.  

·         Mike is in sales and has heard complaints from his customers about the quality of customer service so he decides to work with customer service to diagnose the problem and try to improve service.
 

Simply put, getting employees to go beyond the formal role requirements of their jobs is critical to organizational effectiveness, yet these extra-role efforts often are insufficiently provided by employees, or employees speak up on topics that are not relevant to the underlying goals of the organization.  Despite the great practical importance of these issues, there has been little systematic study of the conditions under which employees are likely to engage in beneficial behaviors that go beyond their formal job responsibilities.  It is therefore important to better understand:

·         Who engages in these extra-role behaviors?  Why are they motivated to do so?

·         Who has effective improvement-oriented ideas, but is not motivated to share them, or is not listened to?

·         How can you best encourage others to engage in these discretionary efforts?

We are looking for organizations that are interested in these questions to conduct this research project.  What we would need is access to groups of employees, which can include a wide variety of departments, units, or work teams.  We would survey employees and their supervisors on 3-4 occasions (approximately 10 minutes each time) over the course of 1-2 months.

In return for facilitating the research project, participating organizations will receive accessible and actionable summaries of our research findings in a research report or presentation(s).  Of particular interest, participating departments and work units will receive an abundance of concrete, improvement-oriented suggestions from their employees.  And, to the extent possible given the diversity of participating groups, they will learn which performance metrics might be improved by creating a highly engaged workforce that is motivated to go beyond the call of duty to benefit the organization.

If interested, please contact us at krockman@gmu.edu or ethan.burris@mccombs.utexas.edu.