Unruly voices: exploring employee voice in the context of ethical resistance

Despite the growing interest in employee voice, real opportunities for co-workers to challenge the status quo are limited (Kenny et al., 2020; Wilkinson et al., 2018; de Maria, 2008). This conceptual paper explores the unruly dimension of employee voice in connection to whistleblowing and protest as modes of ethical resistance (de Maria, 2008). It partly follows recent attempts inorganisation studies to situate employee voice within whistleblowing theory as “escalating voice” (Kenny et al., 2020) to enable a richer understanding of the concept and the motivations behind practices of unveiling misconducts in organisations by their members.
Whistleblowing and protest are different performances of voice (Cassinger & Thelander, 2020). Whistleblowing relies on individual performances, whereas protest rely on collective performances. Both performances, nonetheless, are enacted within and outside the organisation (i.e. internally and externally). The most common way to voice dissent within and beyond the organisation is through whistleblowing. Whistleblowing practices among employees are nowadays often supported by organisations. These practices are viewed as constituting a more trustworthy moral employee voice, which protects organisations from media scrunity and enhance their image as ethical actors (de Maria, 2008; Gretzel, 2017). By contrast, protest is considered to play an important role in informing the public and influential actors about unethical behaviour and wrongdoings unveiled in whistleblowing (Jubb, 1999). In the organisation studies literature, the concepts are typically treated in isolation from one another. One exception is de Maria’s (2008) study that propose a synergy between whistleblowing and protest voices in order to mobilise power more effectively across the internal organisational landscape and the public landscape of the street.
The present paper examines the interaction between whistleblowing and protesting in street marches, confrontations between tourists and residents, and social media campaigns (e.g. #balconingISFun) within the anti-tourism movement in Barcelona (Hughes, 2018). Digital technology facilitates documenting instances of misconduct and sharing the evidence with others (Gretzel, 2017). In the case of the anti-tourism movement, the performances of voice work in concert to forcefully (and sometimes violently) intervene to end - what is experienced as - the moral demise of cities and tourist misconducts. Such interferences aim to mobilise public support and raise questions about the potential of the unruly employee voice as ethical resistance and source of social change.

References:
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Gretzel, U. (2017). Social media activism in tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 15(2), 1-14.
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Kenny, K., Vandekerckhove, W., & Irfan, M. (2020). Whistleblowing as escalating voice. In Wilkinson, A., Donaghey, J., Dundon, T. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Employee Voice. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Wilkinson, A., Gollan, P. J., Kalfa, S. & Xu, Y. (2018). Voices unheard: employee voice in the new century. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(5), 711-724.