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No business organization can be assured of long-term strategic vitality without the continuing willingness of employees to act in the interest of the organization's goals and wellbeing. The economist Albert O. Hirschman addresses the issue of the decay of organizations from the point of view of employees' abandonment of the organization and its interests (e.g., to exit the company) when it fails to provide promised security; when it is disloyal to the employee's sense of justice, and when it fails to provide the employees with the means to express their concerns (to have voice). Organizations' past promise of lifetime security and full employment are long gone, as is the assurance of equitable treatment. At no time in the history of American business has the willingness of managers to engage their subordinates been so vital to the organization's success. By responding to their employees' concerns by listening, the manager gives them a voice and thereby lessens their inclination to leave or take up a disengaged residence on the organization's payroll.
Introduction
The Phoenicians, Romans and Greeks all utilized the trireme as a naval weapon from the seventh to the fourth century B.C. The long warships are commonly thought to have been manned by slave oarsmen who, as depicted in the 1959 film "Ben Hur," were starved, beaten with whips, and chained to their benches. The typical trireme was 121 feet long with a width of 18 feet. Its prow was covered by heavy copper or bronze sheathing that extended below its waterline. Its propulsion depended on the perfectly coordinated stroke of 170 oarsmen. By ramming an enemy ship at a speed of 10 knots (11.8 mph) the target would immediately sink. In his description of trireme battle tactics Wilson states, "Advances in Greek warship design were aimed at achieving the speed necessary for successful ramming without the loss of stability. Impact theory indicates that unless the attacker reached the critical speed of 10 knots at the moment of impact, it would crumple, while the target vessel escaped almost unscathed." (Wilson, 2008 p. 1)
Both common sense and the historical record belie the notion that slaves were the key to the ships effectiveness. According to Schultz (2008 p. 1)
The men who pulled the 13-foot oars had to be exceptionally well trained. Wilson states,
"Organization" originates from the Greek word "organon" which means "tool." The trireme was a combat tool. If any of its vital components failed to function, if a single rower or group of rowers dropped their oars, then the entire ship would be jeopardized. Is it any wonder that these men were treated very well? They were a vital part of the "tool." The ship's captain depended on their strength, their rowing skill, and their willingness to do their part to contribute to the success of the boat's attack. God help him if the rowers weren't in the mood.
Just as the captain would not countenance the mistreatment of his rowers, no strategic or financial executive would countenance the mismanagement of the organization's financial or operational resources. However, untold waste does occur when the organization's relationship with its employees is mismanaged because the employee's participation becomes nominal; they are less willing to be in the game. This is as true for a three-million-dollar baseball player who doesn't care about advancing the runner or a part-time bank teller who doesn't listen to a customer's request for extra checks. They might not do anything as obvious as dropping their oar but they definitely don't pull as hard. When employees are not in the game, they are much more difficult to manage, and the strategic well-being of the organization is jeopardized. If customers are made sufficiently disgruntled, they will take their business elsewhere.
The purpose of this paper is to utilize Albert O. Hirschman's (2007) concept of "exit, voice, and loyalty" to reflect on employee willingness as a critical issue in an organization's success. It will be shown that employee willingness is the outcome of the employee/organization relationship as manifest under the headings of commitment, citizenship, and engagement, and that each of these has differing contingencies both in their organizational antecedents and the employees' response. A second purpose is to show that while commitment and positive citizenship behaviors are determined by factors that are, for the most part, beyond the manager's direct control, engagement is influenced by the manager's willingness to listen to his or her employees and thereby provide the mechanism of voice in the organization.
Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Albert O. Hirschman was a political economist who wrote an eloquent treatise on the decline of organizations by looking beyond supply and demand conditions to disorders that exist inside the organization itself. By decline he meant that organizations are "subject to lapses from efficient, rational, law-abiding, virtuous, or otherwise functional behavior." (Hirschman, 2007, p. 1) He believed that the unattended reduction of the organization's functional virtues will feed on itself until the point is reached where the organization can no longer compete. It loses its resiliency, the loyalty of its customers and the willingness of its employees to participate. What is required is for the persons in the organization who are not living up to these standards to change their behavior in the direction of enhancing the organization's growth by repairing and enhancing the relationship with their employees and their customers rather than continuing to contribute to the organization's decay by not paying attention to the breech.
When an organization begins to decline, it fails to fulfill, in kind, the benefits that its relationship partners (customers and employees) calculate as a fair exchange of value. No business organization can survive without loyal customers and loyal employees. When customers or employees feel that they have been ill-served in the exchange, they perceive it as a breech of loyalty. Their natural reaction is to leave the organization (exit), or they may attempt to repair the condition by communicating their disturbance regarding the organization's perceived disloyalty (voice). While a person may have the option to respond to the decay of the relationship by quitting the job, whether or not they exercise the ultimate prerogative, to exit the organization, is dependent on three constraining factors: cost, loyalty, and voice.
When the financial or psychological consequences of leaving are too high, and there is no means of changing the relationship to one that is more equitable, then a steady state of passive endurance sets in. In other words, many who can't actually leave, do leave in effect. They disengage. They show up but there is negligible vitality in their participation.
The intensity of the person's loyalty to the relationship is the second factor that limits a person's willingness to exit. Hirschman described loyalty as a "special attachment" to the organization. When the employee is confident in the security and reciprocity in the relationship, a bond is formed that is not brittle. It will not fall apart when placed under significant stress. The special attachment is the bond that each party promises to preserve and protect. The attachment is also special because it is a promise made without restriction, and finally and very importantly, it is a relationship that can only be reciprocal. Loyalty is the sustaining wind that keeps the organization afloat and on course. While blind loyalty is the childish attitude of unquestioning obedience to an authority or an ideal, mature, reasoned loyalty is based on an evaluation of the trustworthiness of the other, in this case the intentions of those in the organization who are in the position to affect our well being. When the organization breaks its promises, the bond is weakened, and the people who experience the consequences of the breech are the organization's customers. When discontented representatives of the organization have contact with customers, they project their dissatisfaction, causing customers to feel insecure or unhappy in their dealings with the company.
The third factor is voice. It is the employee's direct verbal expression of complaint, and also the expression of the aversive feelings that attend the complaint. Should the employee be denied the opportunity for this open affective expression, the relationship will become toxic. When there is a mechanism in the organization that provides the means for employees to put their complaint and their feelings into words, and when they believe that there is a good chance that this will produce a positive movement toward change, then the availability of this voice reduces the employee's inclination to leave.
Employee Commitment
Commitment is a psychological attachment to an organization. Meyer and Allen (1991) describe affective commitment as a person's strong positive feeling towards the organization and its goals. There is a personal identification and a feeling of pride in the organization's success. The person's attachment is based on his or her desire to take advantage of what the organization has to offer in terms of need-fulfilling advantages.
Who wouldn't have wanted to become an "IBMer" in the 1960s? It offered a prestigious association with a company known for product and performance quality. In addition to salary, health and educational benefits that guaranteed a comfortable middle-class life, it had a full employment policy, which meant that the company would never lay off employees and its health care and pension promised the employee life-long security. The company's relationship with its employees was reciprocal. In return for its largesse the employee was expected to obey the rules. IBM wanted all of their employees to be special; to reflect the excellence of its products in their adherence to the conservative dress code, personal conduct, and their dignified interactions with customers.
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