Saying it without words: a qualitative study of employee voice in the Iranian building sector

Abstract

The primary aim of this study is to examine the nature, extent and workplace experiences of voice in an industry characterized by vulnerable workers with precarious term of employment. Using qualitative data on the practice of voice and participation among a sample of construction and building materials & products manufacturing firms, we found that the motivation of workers to fulfil their basic human needs take precedence over other needs such as voice and participation intention. The extent to which employee voice was embedded in the organizational policies was found to rely primarily upon the need for compliance with minimum labor legislation and ISO quality management factory regime. Our findings also suggest that voice and participation beyond regulatory and ISO quality compliance remain at the sole discretion of the management that advocated a carrot and stick orientation. The article concludes with the discussion of theoretical and practical implications of the findings and identification of a number of new avenues for future research.

Keywords:

• Precarious employment
• employee voice
• ISO quality system
• case study
• construction industry
• developing economies

Acknowledgment

We would like to extend special acknowledgment to S. Yousefi, N. Yousefi, H. Radar, M. Didekonan and A. Keshavarz for their assistance with this research project.