A Study on the Dimensions of Employee Voice in Government-OwnedBanks (Case Study: Headquarters of Agricultural Bank and its Branches in Tehran)

 The main purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions and components of employee voice in the central headquarters of the Agricultural Bank and its branches in Tehran. This is a qualitative research and in terms of purpose, it is in the category of applied researches, in terms of method, it is in the category of descriptive research, and in terms of data collection and summarization, it is in the category of content analysis. For this action, in the first step, specialized texts of employee voice, including domestic and foreign articles, books, and valid publications were studied, and in the next step, the dimensions of employee voice were identified by conducting interviews with experts of Agricultural Bank. In this study, 16 experts of the target population including managers, presidents and experts of headquarters and branches of the bank in the field of management were present who were identified by Snowball sampling method and interviewed by semi structured in-depth interview method. As a result, 30 summarized themes of interviews and 8 components in the form of 4 dimensions were identified for employee voice including useful voice (With the intention of solving the challenges of the work environment and improving the position of the bank), beneficial voice (With goal of solving personal challenges and gain benefit), consistent voice (With the intention of preventing personal problems and avoiding tension with colleagues) and warning voice (With goal of preventing misconduct, outside the norm and the law).

Introduction:

Rapid environmental change is one of the most important challenges for organizations (Salamzadeh et al., 2019: 280). In this regard, competition for achieving higher productivity in organizations has increased day by day and as a result of trying to effective use various resources such as capital, materials, manpower, etc. has become very important. Among these resources, manpower has a special place (Chamanpira et al., 2020: 102). Although human resource management faces many challenges (Farahni et al., 2021: 99), successful organizations seek to use human resources as a competitive advantage and as a key factor in achieving success ( Kantur, 2016: 31). In this regard, the special attention of managers and leaders of the organization to human resources and their opinions as one of the most important factors in improving productivity is of particular importance (Fathi Chegeni et al., 2021: 81).  Therefore, organizations need their employees to exchange ideas, and the extent to which they express suggestions, ideas, information about problems, or concerns, can have a tremendous impact on the performance of the organization and even its survival. Rastegar & Fatoot, 2020: 2)); However, despite Voice importance in organizations, employees often do not dare to express their dissenting opinions against the leadership of the organization for fear of revenge and reprimand (Yazdanpanah et al., 2021: 72). Field studies also indicate that often paying attention to the views of employees in banks, financial institutions, credit institutions, etc. to facilitate work processes have been neglected, which has led to lack of motivation of employees and their lack of proper response to the client. And the result has been the dissatisfaction of the clients with these institutions and the loss of social capital at the community level. At the same time, the voice of employees within the "banks" is particularly focused on improving the performance of working groups and working relationships and increases employee satisfaction (Kewe, 2018: 43). Now, considering the foregoing and the persistence of research gaps regarding the concept of employee voice (Elsetouhi et al., 2018: 101), this study has tried to fill the research gap and explain the basic question of this research, which is written below.1.What are the dimensions and components of the employees' voice in the central headquarters of Keshavarzi Bank and its branches in Tehran?

Case study:

The statistical population in the present study is 16 managers, presidents and experts of headquarters and branches of the bank in the field of management years who have been selected by Snowball sampling method.Research MethodThe present study is one of the qualitative researches which is based on applied purpose and descriptive-survey type and in terms of time, one-section and with inductive approach and data collection method, it is a review of documents and interviews and to analyze the data from Content analysis method was used. The statistical population in this study was the experts of Keshavarzi Bank because the rate of diversity in providing services, stakeholders and most importantly the expertise of employees in this bank was higher than other state-owned banks, and this led to the diversity of attitudes of employees. And according to the subject of the research, which was the voice of the employees, this bank was selected. In selecting the sample of experts, purposeful snowball method was used for the interview. The average organizational history of experts is about 19 years and most of the experts participating in this study (11 people) have a master's degree. The total time of qualitative interviews with reporters was 1104 minutes, which is an average of 69 minutes. In order to ensure the validity of qualitative research, peer review methods and review by members (interviewees) have been used, the findings of which show the acceptable validity of the findings of the present study. For reliability, the reliability method of retest and reliability between two coders is used and considering that in both methods the reliability rate is about 71%, it can be said that the reliability of the research coding is confirmed.  

Discussion and conclusion:

The resonance and voice of an organizational success depends on the workforce of that organization and most researchers have accepted that human capital is the main pillar of success of any organization. Of course, increasing the level of participation of this capital in organizational decisions is accompanied by increasing the level of their job satisfaction, which is done with voice instrument.  While phonetic behaviors also facilitate continuous improvement in business processes, they improve organizational performance and results. due to the importance of issue, the dimensions of employees' voices in the research community were analyzed and identified. The results showed employee voice means talking about personal problems with superiors, proposing to change a work procedure, preventing a misconduct or expressing views passively with the aim of avoiding tension in the workplace. This variable has 4 dimensions, of which 8 components were identified in the body of these dimensions, which are:1.Beneficiary voice: This reflects the views expressed in order to solve personal challenges and gain benefits, as well as to improve and enhance the administrative position.This dimension was not observed in the studies and can be mentioned as a research innovation.2.Useful voice: points of view is presented with the intention of solving the challenges of the work environment and promoting the position of the bank among customers.The results are consistent with the research of Gordon (1988), Dyne et al. (2003), Dundon et al. (2004), Morrison (2011). Morrison calls this type of Voice proposal-driven and relates it to the development of a unit or department of work or organization. Hu et al. (2018) in their research have considered this dimension of voice in the category of organizational citizenship behavior and have considered it as direct comments from above, below and horizontally, which explicitly aim to benefit the organization and the group. The interviewees, while confirming this Voice, called for more attention from the authorities in this regard, and described the lack of attention to this type of voice as a serious injury in the workplace, and stated that if this issue is ignored, the staff become unmotivated, the desire to express creative views disappears, and eventually lethargy and daily life prevail, which will result in dissatisfaction of the client and customers. In confirmation of the above, it should be noted that according to Seyed Naghavi (1399), ignoring the opinions of employees in the workplace is among the bullying behaviors that are unconstructive and impose costs on the performance and output of employees, groups and organizations. Finally, the interviewees wanted to create an atmosphere to encourage employees to express this kind of voice and institutionalize this issue in the workplace.3.Warning voice: with the aim of preventing damage to the bank symbol and preventing improper behavior, it is expressed outside the norm and legally in the workplace. The result is consistent with the research of Sadeghian et al. (1398). They consider this dimension to be the expression of employees' opinions to reduce undesirable behaviors and prevent damage to work units. Sang et al. (2021) also called this dimension of Voice prohibitive and stated that when a person observes shortcomings or potential threats to the organization, he expresses this type of Voice. Interviewees consider it as one of the vital aspects of Voice for banks, and they believe that managers and officials should provide the conditions for its occurrence in the workplace, because the expression of this view will keep the bank and employees safe from any deviation and abuse4.Consistent voice: Expressing views is aimed at preventing personal problems in the workplace and stabilizing the position and avoiding tension with level and superior officials. This type of Voice is consistent with the results of research by Dyne et al. (2003). They described this type of Voice as obedient, stating that this form of voice was motivated by neutrality, and that the staff, believing that they could not change the status quo, will express only ideas and opinions in support of the current situation. Interviewees considered the voice to be a reprehensible phenomenon and described it as a serious injury in the workplace. In their view, the reason for this type of Voice was the inflexibility of some managers and the officials' lack of interest in useful and warning voices, and in order to avoid further consequences, they demanded the elimination of the grounds for its creation in the bank.In view of the foregoing, in the present age, the voice of employees can no longer be restrained, and its presence in the workplace has become an inevitable necessity; therefore, based on the results of this study, it is suggested:1.In order to acquaint the managers and heads of branches, a training course should be held to get acquainted with the concept of sound and its dimensions in accordance with the research results.2.Develop a procedure in which employees are appreciated and encouraged in accordance with the presentation of practical suggestions and voices, especially useful voices and warnings.Managers should show behavior so that employees can raise their concerns and worries about personal (beneficiary voice) and work (useful voice and warning voice) without fear; managers also announce the final result of actions on the issues raised to employees so that they can be encouraged to raise their voices while trusting their superiors.4.A special bed for voice expression of employees should be implemented in the central headquarters of Keshavarzi Bank and its branches to provide access and communication for all employees for voice expression and feedback of voices to them.5.Internal surveys on business processes should be conducted and using the results, in a way that the voice of employees is considered as part of the organizational culture of the bank.Finally, researchers are advised to scrutinize the voice of employees in other branches of the Agricultural Bank across the country or in other public and private banks