^Academy of Management Journal 1986, Vol, 29, No, 3, 488-502,

EMPLOYEE VOICE AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION

DANIEL G. SPENCER University of Kansas
This study investigates the relationship between the extent to which employees have opportunities to voice dissatisfaction and voluntary turnover in 111 short-term, general care hospitals. Results show that, whether or not a union is present, high numbers of mechanisms for employee voice are associated with high retention rates. Implications for theory and research as well as management practice are discussed.

The relationship between the job satisfaction and employee turnover has been one of the most widely studied but least understood relationships in the organizational behavior literature. The consistently low correlations between job satisfaction and turnover found in empirical research on the topic clearly indicate that the relationship is not direct. Many processes may intercede either to cause satisfied employees to leave organizations or dissatisfied employees to remain with organizations. Previous research has proposed and tested a number of moderators that might clarify the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover (March & Simon, 1958; Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, & Meglino, 1979; Price, 1977). The two most prominent have been (1) the number of employment alternatives employees wbo are considering leaving an organization have, and (2) nonwork-related influences sucb as a spouse's immobility. Also, researcb bas recently centered around testing Mobley's (1977) model of tbe process of employees' decisions on turnover in attempts to better understand tbose cognitive and bebavioral processes tbat mediate tbe relationship between affective reactions to jobs and turnover. But even tbougb scbolars bave expended much effort in theorizing about and researching tbe relationsbip between job satisfaction and turnover, consistently weak empirical relationsbips are still found. Steers and Mowday (1981) suggested a beretofore neglected process tbat may intervene in the relationsbip in question: employees' efforts to cbange dissatisfying work situations tbat would otberwise be major factors in their decisions to leave tbeir organizations. Employees wbo succeed in cbanging dissatisfying work situations will lower tbeir dissatisfaction; witb intent to
University of Kansas General Research Fund Grants 3616-0038 and 3219-0038 provided support for this research. In addition, it was supported by the University of Kansas School of Business Research Fund provided by the Fourth National Bank & Trust Company, Wichita, The ideas and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. The comments of Richard T, Mowday, George F, Dreher, and Morris M, Kleiner on earlier drafts are greatly appreciated. Portions of this paper were presented at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, New York, 1982, 488

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leave changed to intent to remain, tbe likelihood increases tbat these employees will ultimately remain with tbeir organizations. Up until recently, tben, tbe literature on turnover bas focused on only one of several alternatives open to individuals faced witb dissatisfying work situations, leaving; it has ignored tbe alternative strategy of attempting to cbange sucb situations.
HIRSGHMAN'S GONGEPTS OF EXIT AND VOIGE

Tbe proposed relationsbip between employees' efforts to cbange dissatisfying work situations and turnover is implicit in mucb of tbe work of Albert Hirscbman (1970, 1974), wbose perspective served as tbe theoretical foundation for tbe present researcb. He extensively studied responses to declining firms in terms of exit and voice. Tbe two terms refer to two options tbat members or clients of an organization bave wben responding to an economically dissatisfying relationsbip witb that organization. The source of dissatisfaction migbt be declining quality of tbe organization or declining quality of its products. To voice dissatisfaction is to try to cbange a problematic situation, and to exit is simply to witbdraw from and leave tbe problematic situation. Most of Hirscbman's work is grounded in economics and tbus focuses primarily on tbe clients of an organization using voice or exit ratber tban on its members using tbese options. Hirscbman's concepts are gaining increasing attention in tbe organizational bebavior literature (Farrell, 1983). Tbis attention is not limited to studies of employee turnover; otber relevant work includes researcb on absenteeism (Hammer, Landau, & Stern, 1981), political bebavior (Farrell & Peterson, 1982), organizational due process (Aram & Salipante, 1981), organizational dissent (Grabam, 1986), and tbe catbartic effects of voice (Greenberg & Folger, 1983).
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AND THE LABOR RELATIONS LITERATURE

Unions can be viewed as vebicles for tbe collective voicing of employees' dissatisfactions. Previous researcb bas demonstrated tbat unionism is clearly associated witb employee stability. Freeman and Medoff (1984), reviewing tbeir own and others' analyses of individual bebavior and industry aggregates, demonstrated tbat unionization is consistently and significantly associated witb retention of employees if wage rates and otber known predictors of employee exit are controlled for. Tbe control of wage rates is critical in order to differentiate tbe effects of unions in terms of voice from any monopoly effects due to union control of equivalent jobs. Tbe researcb Freeman and Medoff (1984) reviewed is witbout exception based on analyses of very large data sets like tbe National Longitudinal Survey.^ Sucb data sets constrain tbe specific relationsbips tbat can be studied and tbe levels of analysis at wbicb sucb relationsbips can be examined. In particular, very little researcb exists on tbe effects of unionization on
* This survey was conducted by the Genter for Human Resource Research, Ohio State University,

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quitting rates in organizations. Becker (1978) conducted sucb an organization level study, examining tbe effects of unionization on rates of quitting for individuals in low-wage occupations in short-term, general care bospitals. Gontrary to results at otber levels of analysis, Becker found a weak, marginally significant relationsbip (p < .10) between unionization and rate of turnover wbile controlling for monopoly effects and a wide variety of otber known predictors of employee exit. Tbe generalizability of researcb like Becker's (1978) is limited; sucb work is usually specific to tbe occupation, organization, and region studied.^ However, wben an investigator controls data collection, a study is more likely to include predictors of exit tbat are not captured in studies using existing data bases. For example, Becker examined the effects of fringe benefits on rates of quitting in addition to tbe effects of v/ages. Freeman and Medoff (1984) noted tbat a major criticism of researcb on unions' effects in terms of voice is tbat most existing data sets do not include information on a principal monetary reward sucb as fringe benefits and tbus do not fully control for monopoly effects. Anotber significant criticism of researcb on voice effects of unions is Ulman and Sorensen's (1984) demonstration tbat, for unionized employees, tbe effects of strikes and tbe tbreat of strikes provide otber alternatives to quitting besides voice realized tbrougb tbe union grievance mecbanism. Tbus, accurately assessing tbe effects of employee voice on numbers of exits requires more tban assessing tbe effect of unionization. It requires exploring tbe effects of mecbanisms, wbetber union mandated or not, tbat organizations put in place to enbance tbeir employees' opportunities for voicing dissatisfaction. Tbis approacb necessitates collecting data specifically for tbis purpose instead of using an existing data base. Tbis study employed a data collection strategy similar to tbat used by Becker (1978).
HYPOTHESES AND STUDY DESIGN Study One

Two studies provided data for tbis researcb. Tbe first sougbt to determine if tbere is a direct relationsbip between (1) tbe amount of opportunity an organization gives its employees to voice dissatisfaction and cbange dissatisfying work situations, and (2) tbe organization's rate of employee retention. Tbus, Hypothesis 1; There will be a significant and negative relationship between the total number of voice mechanisms for employees that an organization has and the voluntary turnover rate among the organization's employees.

^ Becker (1978) surveyed hospitals in three contiguous states in the north central United States,

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Tbe focus bere was on tbe amount of opportunity available for voice and not on tbe quality of tbat opportunity; tbe second may, in fact, be a more viable determinant of retention. Employee voice mecbanisms examined in tbis researcb included grievance procedures, suggestion systems, employeemanagement meetings, counseling services, ombudsman services, nonmanagement task forces, question and answer programs, and survey feedback. Tbe following known predictors of rate of employee turnover were controlled for in tbis study: wage rate, tbe ratio of fringe benefits to total compensation, unemployment rate, number of grievances filed (a surrogate for job dissatisfaction), percentage of minority employment, organizational size, and occupation-specific employment opportunities in tbe region (see Becker, 1978). Tbe effect of unionization of tbe workforce on tbe rate of employee retention was examined separately, but for tbe purposes of tbis study, it is included as a control variable. Tbis study examined only tbe retention rates of an occupation dominated by women tbat bas a documented sbortage of workers: registered nursing. Sbort-term, general care bospitals tbat universally employ continuing education for registered nurses were studied. Tbis population was cbosen to control for unwanted variance due to differences in total employment accounted for by women, sbortage of workers, availability of continuing education, occupational type, and organizational type. Study Two Tbe first study did not assess tbe quality of tbe bospitals' voice mecbanisms. A second analysis was conducted to examine tbe relationship between tbe number of mechanisms offering employees tbe option of voice in an organization and employees' perceptions of tbe effectiveness of tbese mecbanisms. From four bospitals participating in tbe first study, data were collected on registered nurses' expectancies for resolving work related problems and tbeir perceptions of tbe general effectiveness of tbeir organizations' voice mecbanisms. It was proposed that. Hypothesis 2: A high number of employee voice mechanisms will be positively related to high expectancies of problem resolution among employees and high levels of effectiveness for the organization's problem resolution procedures. STUDY ONE Methods Sample. Organizations were tbe units of analysis in tbis study. Participating organizations were sbort-term, general care bospitals ranging from 50 to over 1,000 beds in size. A systematic sample of presidents and executive directors of bospitals in tbe nortb central United States was drawn from tbe American Hospital Association membersbip directory. Tbese administrators

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received questionnaire packages witb a cover letter requesting tbem to forward tbe questionnaire and tbe return envelope provided to tbeir hospitals' personnel directors. In most cases, personnel directors or members of personnel staffs completed tbe questionnaires. Out of a sample of 278 bospitals, individuals in 129 of tbem completed and returned questionnaires for a response rate of 46.4 percent. Previous studies using similar strategies for data collection bave yielded response rates below 30 percent (Becker, 1978). Of tbe bospitals participating in tbe study, 13.9 percent tbat did not supply data on employee turnover were removed from tbe final sample. Data from 111 sbort-term, general care bospitals, 15 of wbicb bad unionized registered nurses, were analyzed. Employee voice mechanisms. Tbe questionnaire asked wbetber or not a hospital's registered nurses were subject to tbe following employee-relations practices: (1) formal grievance procedure, (2) suggestion system, (3) employeemanagement meetings, (4) counseling service, (5) ombudsman, (6) nonmanagement task forces, (7) question and answer program, and (8) survey feedback. A composite index of employee voice mecbanisms was created by simply summing tbe number of tbese mecbanisms tbat an organization employed (Kuder-Ricbardson Formula 20 = .55). Turnover among registered nurses. Eacb bospital administrator was asked to supply tbe rate of voluntary turnover for its registered nurses for tbe previous 12-montb period. Control variables. Tbe questionnaire sougbt tbe following numerical information on a bospital's registered nurses: (1) wage rate per bour, (2) ratio of fringe benefits to total compensation, (3) number of grievances tbey filed, and (4) percentage of minority employment. It also asked tbe bospital's size (number of beds) and tbe number of hospital beds in tbe county to appraise alternative employment opportunities in tbe region. In addition, it asked if registered nurses were unionized. Finally, unemployment rates for eacb bospital's county and standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA) for tbe 12-montb period under study were obtained from tbe researcb and statistics departments of state employment security divisions. Results Table 1 gives means and standard deviations of tbe study's variables. Tbe mean rate of turnover among registered nurses was 21.1 percent (s.d. = 11.5). Table I also provides Pearson correlations between variables. All correlations between variables and turnover were in tbe predicted direction witb tbe exception of tbe positive correlation^ between wage rate and turnover.

^ There is a potential explanation for this finding that Becker (1978), who found similar results, did not consider. For hospitals with production functions that require high levels of staffing at all hours, average hourly wages are higher because they pay premium differentials for staffing undesirable shifts. In such circumstances, particularly with a shortage of nurses, it would not be surprising that turnover would be high as employees would leave for more desirable shifts with other organizations.

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It was hypothesized that the more opportunities employees have to voice dissatisfaction and have input into changing dissatisfying work situations, the greater the numher of employees that will remain with an organization. The composite index of employee voice mechanisms correlated negatively with turnover among registered nurses (r = -.24, p < .05); the greater the number of employee voice mechanisms that a hospital employed, the lower the turnover. This significant relationship hetween the composite index and rate of turnover holds when a numher of known predictors of employee turnover are statistically partialled out (see Tahle 2). Ordinary.-least-squares regression was considered appropriate for multivariate analysis of the data (cf. Kochan & Helfman, 1981). As indicated in Tahle 2, the multiple correlation of the linear combinations of all control variahles, except for unionization, with turnover was fl = .36. Adding unionization to the predictive equation did not increase the multiple correlation with turnover. Finally, adding the composite index of employee voice mechanisms, including the unionization variable, to the predictive equation significantly increased the multiple correlation with turnover to R = .45 and the explained variance in the dependent variable to AR^ = .07. This significant (t = 2.6, p < .05) increase is reflected by the twofold increase in R^ corrected for shrinkage. Therefore, number of employee voice mechanisms is significantly associated with rate of turnover among registered nurses TABLE 2 Results of Hierarchical Regression Analyses of Unweighted Composite Index of Employee Voice Mechanisms, Unionization, and Control Variables on Registered Nurse Turnover^
Step 2: Step 1: Assessmen t o f Control1 Variables Unionization Effect Independent Variables Hourly wage rate Fringe benefits County unemployment rate Grievances filed Minority employment Beds in hospital Hospital beds in county Unionization Employee voice mechanisms Constant
R R^
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.04 .09 .00 .00 .15 .13 .02 .03
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3.55 .24 1.9 -.03 -.02 -0.1 -.73 -.19 -1.7

.04 .11 .00 .00 .16 .16 .05 .00
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" Deletion of missing data reduced the number of hospitals on which regression analyses were conducted to 81. b Partial t. *p < ,05.

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when a large number of known predictors of employee turnover are controlled. In the composite index employed, each employee voice mechanism received equal weight. When a weighted linear combination of the components of this index was created through regression analysis, the multiple correlation with rate of turnover among registered nurses was R = .41. Little confidence can be placed in this weighted combination of variables, however, because when the sample was split into two subsamples composed of even and odd cases, the regression coefficients were not stable and the two subsamples failed to double-cross-validate at an acceptable level (r = .16, n.s.; r = .31, p < .05). STUDY TWO Methods Sample. Four hospitals that participated in study one volunteered to allow a survey of nonsupervisory registered nurses' perceptions of their organizations' voice mechanisms. In two hospitals, one with 53 beds and the other with 250, questionnaires were administered on site during working hours; response rates were 44.4 and 23.7 percent. In the second two hospitals (107 and 112 beds), personnel departments distributed questionnaires with return envelopes addressed to the researcher to be filled out at the employees' convenience; response rates were 42.8 and 27.3 percent. All nonsupervisory registered nurses currently on staff at the hospitals received questionnaires; participation was voluntary. Nurses' perceptions. Nurses estimated how often they felt they would be effective in resolving eight work-related problems. The response format ranged from 10 to 100 percent of the time on 10-percent intervals. Problems given were related to supervision, tasks, co-workers, pay, or promotions. Two items represented each of the first three types of problems and one item represented each of the last two types. The reliability for the eight-item composite measure of expectancy of problem resolution was satisfactory (a = .86). The questionnaire also asked the extent to which nurses agreed or disagreed with a series of ten statements (see Appendix) designed to reflect the extent to which the management of their organizations effectively responded to and used employee voice (a = .89). Finally, three one-item measures asked employees the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with three statements (see Appendix) designed to assess their perceptions of the effectiveness of voice mechanisms, the utility of efforts to change dissatisfying situations, and their preference for leaving versus attempting to resolve dissatisfaction. Results Table 3 gives means and standard deviations of these variables as well as Pearson correlations. All correlations are in the expected direction.

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TABLE 4 Registered Nurses' Perceptions and Relevant Organizational Characteristics of Four Nonunion, Short Term, General Care Hospitals with Varying Numbers of Employee Voice Mechanisms"
High Opportunity Low Opportunity fori /oice for Voice Hospital Hospital Hospital Hospital 1 2 3 4 52 Yes Yes Yes No Yes ' Yes No Yes 6 8,3% 16,6% 15,0% 250 Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes 5 20,7% 19,4% 23,1% 112 Yes No No No No No Yes Yes 3 10.8% 21,6% 26,4% 107 Yes Yes Yes No No No No No 3 33,3% 28,6% 40,0%

Variables Relevant organizational characteristics Number of beds Grievance procedure Suggestion system Employee-management meetings Counseling service Ombudsman Nonmanagement task forces Question-and-answer program Survey feedback Total number of mechanisms Turnover among registered nurses Turnover among licensed practical nurses Total organizational turnover Perceived expectancy and effectiveness Problem resolution expectancies Supervisory problems Task problems Co-worker problems Pay problems Promotion problems Composite expectancy Management's responsiveness to voice Effectiveness of voice mechanisms Utility of efforts to change dissatisfying situations Preference for leaving versus attempting to resolve dissatisfaction

59,4% 67,5%'' 75,6%'' 28,7% 36,2% 58,7%'' 4,20'' 2.87'> 3.88>' 2,62''

43,5% 58,7% 56,2% 30,9% 42,4% 48,7% 3,88 3,48 3,68 2,20

34,5% 41,3% 47,7% 30,9% 31,5% 38,7% 2,81 1,91 2,16 3,34

45,0% 55,0% 49.7% 37,3% 43,3% 47,5% 3.45 2.60 2.47 2,80

a Ns = 8, 46, 33, 15, respectively, for Hospitals 1-4. '' t-test significant at the p < ,01 level (combined perceptions for Hospitals 1 and 2 compared to combined perceptions for Hospitals 3 tuid 4),

Table 4 reports levels of expectancy and perceptions of the effectiveness of voice mechanisms for hospitals with varying numbers of voice mechanisms. Hospitals 1 and 2 had six and five mechanisms respectively, and hospitals 3 and 4 had three mechanisms apiece. When these hospitals are treated as two groups, t-tests for differences between means indicate significantly higher levels of expectancy and perceptions of voice effectiveness in the pair of hospitals with the larger numbers of voice mechanisms. These differences emerged for all variables except expectancies for resolving problems related to supervision, pay, and promotion. These findings support the hypothesis that employees of hospitals with large numbers of

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employee voice mechanisms will have high expectancies for problem resolution and will perceive a high level of effectiveness in their organizations' responses to employee voice. These results should be interpreted with caution. First, the measures of employee perception are intercorrelated (see Table 3). Second, Table 4 reports separate means for each hospital in order to indicate the extent to which these means differ within each of the two designated groups. As these data clearly indicate, hospital 1 tended to have the highest levels of expectancy and perceptions of voice effectiveness and hospital 3 consistently had the lowest levels. More important, although hospital 2 had more voice mechanisms than hospital 4, the levels of expectancy and perceived effectiveness of voice mechanisms were only slightly higher for hospital 2 in most cases. The rate of turnover among registered nurses was also higher for both hospitals 2 and 4 than for the other hospitals. Although extrapolation to other turnover figures is somewhat problematic. Table 4 does indicate that voluntary turnover for licensed practical nurses and the organization as a whole was higher for the hospitals with the fewest employee voice mechanisms.
DISCUSSION

The results of study one suggest that the more an organization gives employees the opportunity to voice dissatisfaction over aspects of their work in order to change dissatisfying work situations, the greater the likelihood that its employees will remain with the organization. Registered nurses' turnover rates in short-term, general care hospitals were significantly lower in hospitals with many mechanisms for the voicing of employees' dissatisfaction. In addition, this relationship held with statistical control for a wide variety of known predictors of rate of employee turnover. The results of study two, although only suggestive, indicate that high numbers of voice mechanisms are associated with high levels of employees' expectancies for problem resolution and high perceived effectiveness of an organization's procedures for resolving problems. These findings also lend credibility to the construct, number of employee voice mechanisms. This implies that when employees have many opportunities to voice dissatisfaction they (1) appear to be predisposed to take advantage of those opportunities, and (2) appear to consider procedures for problem resolution effective. Although previous research has consistently found an effect for unionization on retention rate, this research did not find such an effect. Uniqueness in the types of organization and occupation examined may account for these negative results. Unionization's effects on voice may have been washed out. Data indicated that unionized hospitals averaged 4.42 mechanisms and nonunionized hospitals averaged 4.52 mechanisms; in addition, no significant differences emerged when each mechanism was considered individually. Perhaps this finding is a result of a union-threat effect; nonunionized hospitals may provide voice mechanisms that would otherwise be provided by

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unions in order to reduce dissatisfaction and thus reduce the threat of unionization.'* The strengths and limitations of this research are worth considering. This research extended previous work on unions' effects on rates of employee retention by looking at the potential effects of voice mechanisms themselves. Organizations might institute these mechanisms as a result of unionization or in attempts to improve management process. Additional strengths are that this research controlled for a wide variety of potential predictors of rate of turnover and included critical information on employees' perceptions of the organizational characteristics under investigation. A limitation is that this research does not represent a complete picture of the phenomena involved in the relationship between the options of voice and exit. Two omissions are worthy of note. First, Hirschman's (1970) model focused on exiting in silence versus staying and voicing concerns. Additional options open to employees, such as staying in silence and exiting with voice, need to be incorporated into the model (Barry, 1974; Birch, 1975). In fact. Birch (1975) argued that in many cases people are more likely to exit with voice than to remain and engage in voice, particularly when there is a possibility of retaliation. Second, this research did not address the issue of loyalty. Hirschman (1970) hypothesized that those clients or employees who have greater loyalty to a product or an organization will be more likely than others to respond with voice to correct a perceived decline in organizational performance. Barry has criticized the loyalty concept as an "ad hoc equation filler" (1974: 95) that could be inversely as well as positively correlated with voice (see also Laver, 1976). But it is difficult to deny that loyalty in the form of behavioral commitment to an organizationentrenchment due to length of serviceis likely to have an inverse relationship with employees' exit rates, whether or not employees have successfully changed dissatisfying states of affairs (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). An important limitation, addressed in the introduction, is that the actual quality of the voice mechanisms under study was unknown. The second study indirectly addressed this issue by assessing employees' perceptions of the effectiveness of voice mechanisms. This assessment, however, cannot substitute for an approach that would ideally involve in-depth content analysis of the nature and quality of each employee voice mechanism at each organizational site under study. This research assessed employees' perceptions of the effectiveness of voice mechanisms at only four of the organizations represented in the larger study; in addition, sample sizes for these analyses were small and measures whose psychometric properties were relatively unknown were constructed and used.

* Ciirtin (1970) found that unsuccessful unionization attempts generally result in improved communication practices; in over 60 percent of the companies these practices usually included: "establishment of regular meetings with the employees, institution of a formal grievance procedure, formation of an office committee, concerted effort to deal promptly with employee complaints" {1970: 67),

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Another limitation of this research is that although significant relationships emerged from the analysis, they are not very strong. Also, these relationships are purely associational and thus causality cannot be assumed. A related problem concerns synchronicity of the data; assessment of number of voice mechanisms was made at the end of the one-year period for which retention data was collected. Another limitation is that the research was conducted in one particular type of organization and on one specific occupational classification. A further limitation is the relatively low response rate; however, comparing the responses obtained against population demographics provided by each of the hospitals and bed sizes obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics indicated that the responses were representative of the population of individuals and of hospitals involved. Future research should incorporate tests of the hypotheses in different populations and use research methodologies where causality could be inferred as well as strategies of data collection that would improve rates of response. The findings of this study reinforce Steers and Mowday's (1981) assumption that investigations of the process of employee turnover need to consider employees' efforts to change unsatisfactory work situations. On the organizational level of analysis, future research should consider not only formal voice mechanisms and their quality, but also informal organizational cultures that create and sustain those mechanisms. It is not inconceivable that the rough assessment of total numbers of voice mechanisms that this study used is tangible evidence of a potentially salient organizational component such as managerial philosophy. The individual level of analysis needs a model of the process of turnover decisions that incorporates the two major alternatives available to employees: (1) searching for alternative employment to exit from a dissatisfying work situation, and (2) attempting to change a dissatisfying work situation in an effort to remain. Mobley's (1977) model of the process of turnover decisions focused only on the first course of action. But what causes employees to take one course of action before the other or to take both courses of action simultaneously? Perhaps employees' commitment and expectancies concerning the effectiveness of voice mechanisms and procedures for problem resolution would play a significant role in this process. If future research supports the hypotheses examined in this study, one practical implication is that organizations may be able to effectively reduce employee turnover by increasing the sophistication of their processes for resolving complaints. Employees who search for alternative employment without attempting to change dissatisfying work situations give organizations no indication that anything is wrong until after they find other work and hand in their resignations. By listening to, encouraging, and providing mechanisms for employees who want to change dissatisfying work situations, perhaps organizations could prevent employees' forming an intent to leave. In addition, organizations that engage in such activities should be able to obtain information from employees that could improve the effectiveness of

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these organizations (Freeman, 1976; Hirschman, 1976), information that is not available when employees silently leave. REFERENCES
Aram, J. O., & Salipante, P. F., Jr. 1981. An evaluation of organizational due process in the resolution of employee/employer conflict. Academy of Management Beview, 6:197-204. Barry. B. 1974. Review article: Exit, voice, and loyalty. British fournal of Political Science, 4: 79-107. Becker, B. 1978. Hospital unionism and employment stability. Industrial Belations, 17: 96-101. Birch. A. H. 1975. Economic models in political science: The case of "Exit, voice, and loyalty." British Journal of Political Science, 5: 69-82. Curtin. E. R. 1970. VWiife collar unionism. Personnel policy study No. 220, National Industrial Conference Board, New York. Fsirrell, D. 1983. Exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect as responses to job dissatisfaction: A multidimensional scaling study. Academy of Management Journal, 26: 596-607. Farrell, D., & Peterson. J. C. 1982. Patterns of political behavior in organizations. Academy of Management Betriew, 7: 403412. Freeman. R. B. 1976. Individual mobility and union voice in the labor market. American Economic Beview, 66: 361-368. Freeman, R. B., & Medoff. J. L. 1984. What do unions do? New York: Basic Books. Graham, J. W. 1986. Principled organizational dissent: A theoretical essay. In B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Besearch in Organizational Behavior, vol. 8: In press. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press. Greenberg, J., & Folger, R. 1983. Procedural justice, participation, and the fair process effect in groups and organizations. In P. B. Paulus (Ed.), Basic group processes: 235-256. New York: Springer-Verlag. Hammer, T. H.. Landau, J. C, & Stern, R. N. 1981. Absenteeism when workers have a voice: The case of employee ownership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 66: 561573. Hirschman, A. O. 1970. Exit, voice, and loyalty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Hirschman, A. O. 1974. Exit, voice, and loyalty: Further reflections and a survey of recent contributions. Social Science Information, 13(1): 7-26. Hirschman, A. 0.1976. Some uses of the exit-voice approachDiscussion. American Economic Beview, 66: 386-391. Kochan, T. A., & Helfman, D. E. 1981. The effects of collective bargaining on economic and behavioral job outcomes. In R. G. Ehrenberg (Ed.), Besearch in labor economics: 321-365. Greenwich. Conn.: JAI Press. Laver. M. 1976. "Exit, voice, and loyalty" revisited. British Journal of Political Science, 6: 463-482. March. J. G., & Simon. H. A. 1958. Organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Mobley. W. H. 1977. Intermediate linkages in the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62: 237-240. Mobley, W. H., Griffeth, R. W., Hand. H. H., & Meglino, B. M. 1979. Review and conceptual analysis of the employee turnover process. Psychological Bulletin, 86: 493-522. Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. 1982. Employee-organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. New York: Academic Press.

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424-428. APPENDIX
All items used 7-point response formats; "R" indicates reverse scoring. Management's responsiveness to voice mechanisms: The management of my organization is not interested in resolving individual employee problems. (R) The management of my orgeinization encourages employees to voice their problems. The management of my organization has not provided enough mechanisms (for example, suggestion systems, grievance procedures, etc.) to allow employees to effectively voice their dissatisfaction. (R) I get the feeling that my superior does not want to hear about my complaints. (R) The personnel manager is open to receiving complaints. My boss comes around regularly to keep in touch with any complaints that I may have. The personnel manager makes an effort to keep in touch with any complaints that workers have. I feel intimidated by my superiors when pursuing a grievance. (R) Management views grievances as a challenge to their authority. (R) The organization encourages suggestions to improve situations that are dissatisfying to employees. Effectiveness of voice mechanisms: The mechanisms to resolve employee problems of my organization are very effective. Utility of efforts to change dissatisfying situations: Attempting to change something at work that dissatisfies me would be a waste of time. (R) Preference for leaving versus attempting to resolve dissatisfaction: I would rather find a job elsewhere than attempt to change something at work that dissatisfies me.

Daniel G. Spencer is an associate professor of business at the University of Kansas. Lawrence. Kansas. He received his Ph.D. degree in organization and management from the University of Oregon. His current research interests include turnover, absenteeism, and processes of resolution of employee-organization conflicts.