Trust and Shout: The Reputation/Voice Tension in Schools and Hospitals

Employee voice may represent a risk for reputation-sensitive organizations, as use of voice may harm organizations’ desired reputation at the same time as it offers an opportunity to boost reputation. As such, voice should not be treated as a one-dimensional construct. Using a more nuanced approach, reputation concern, control-oriented HRM, and heteronomy are tested as possible antecedents to two forms of voice, namely promotive and prohibitive voice, in public sector schools and hospitals, respectively. The study is based on quantitative data from a survey of Norwegian high school teachers (n = 1055) and hospital employees (n = 453), covering the two main sectors in the Norwegian welfare state. Main methods of analysis include path analysis and bootstrapping. Reputation concern is found to directly stimulate promotive, but not prohibitive, voice, in hospitals. In schools, reputation concern does not stimulate voice at all, but inhibits prohibitive voice both directly and indirectly through leader–member exchange (LMX). Control-oriented HRM inhibits both forms of voice in schools, but not in hospitals. Heteronomy inhibits both prohibitive and promotive voice directly and indirectly in both schools and hospitals. In sum, schools are more voice restrictive than hospitals. The present study is among the first to examine the two-dimensional construct of voice in relation to reputation concern, control-oriented HRM, and heteronomy, and to comparatively examine these relationships in schools and hospitals, which differ in their degree of marketization.