“Shouting straight into space” A Qualitative Study on Enablers and Barriers of Employee Voicing in Digital Meetings
(2025) SKOM12 20251Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract
- In communication and management research, employee voice has been widely acknowledged as a central component for organizations long term development and survival. With the increasing digitalization and need for flexibility, digital workplace meetings have become a common form of communication, demonstrating a new arena where employee voice is expressed and shaped. Thus, the aim of this study is to gather an in-depth understanding for how employee voice is shaped in digital meetings. With 13 semi-structured interviews within one case organization, the processes of how employees express voice in the digital communication environment is examined. This study analyzes the empirical material through the theoretical framework of media affordance... (More)
- In communication and management research, employee voice has been widely acknowledged as a central component for organizations long term development and survival. With the increasing digitalization and need for flexibility, digital workplace meetings have become a common form of communication, demonstrating a new arena where employee voice is expressed and shaped. Thus, the aim of this study is to gather an in-depth understanding for how employee voice is shaped in digital meetings. With 13 semi-structured interviews within one case organization, the processes of how employees express voice in the digital communication environment is examined. This study analyzes the empirical material through the theoretical framework of media affordance theory and psychological safety. The findings demonstrate that digital and hybrid meetings change both how, who and to what degree employees choose to express their voice. The mediums affordances, such as the camera function that regulates visibility, as well as structured turn-taking through the hand raising tool are both enablers and constraints for employee voice. Additionally, the perceived level of psychological safety significantly changes in digital meetings due to the predominant practical conditions in these environments, such as back-to-back meetings and greater group sizes. The conclusions of the analysis are summarized into a list of enablers and barriers of employee voicing. Additionally, a model is presented that illustrates the complex interplay of media affordances, psychological safety and organizational context and its relevance in shaping employee voice in digital meetings. It is concluded that employee voicing is shaped and reshaped by digital and hybrid meetings, because of the complex tensions where the same affordances can both promote and constrain the expression of voice. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9197201
- author
- Nikolic, Maja LU and Holster, Ella LU
- supervisor
-
- Mats Heide LU
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- employee voicing, digital meetings, digital work environment, workplace meetings, psychological safety, media affordance
- language
- English
- id
- 9197201
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-23 09:47:05
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 09:47:05
@misc{9197201,
abstract = {{In communication and management research, employee voice has been widely acknowledged as a central component for organizations long term development and survival. With the increasing digitalization and need for flexibility, digital workplace meetings have become a common form of communication, demonstrating a new arena where employee voice is expressed and shaped. Thus, the aim of this study is to gather an in-depth understanding for how employee voice is shaped in digital meetings. With 13 semi-structured interviews within one case organization, the processes of how employees express voice in the digital communication environment is examined. This study analyzes the empirical material through the theoretical framework of media affordance theory and psychological safety. The findings demonstrate that digital and hybrid meetings change both how, who and to what degree employees choose to express their voice. The mediums affordances, such as the camera function that regulates visibility, as well as structured turn-taking through the hand raising tool are both enablers and constraints for employee voice. Additionally, the perceived level of psychological safety significantly changes in digital meetings due to the predominant practical conditions in these environments, such as back-to-back meetings and greater group sizes. The conclusions of the analysis are summarized into a list of enablers and barriers of employee voicing. Additionally, a model is presented that illustrates the complex interplay of media affordances, psychological safety and organizational context and its relevance in shaping employee voice in digital meetings. It is concluded that employee voicing is shaped and reshaped by digital and hybrid meetings, because of the complex tensions where the same affordances can both promote and constrain the expression of voice.}},
author = {{Nikolic, Maja and Holster, Ella}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“Shouting straight into space” A Qualitative Study on Enablers and Barriers of Employee Voicing in Digital Meetings}},
year = {{2025}},
}