Does Voice Gap Influence Workers’ Job Attitudes and Well‐Being? Measuring Voice as a Dimension of Job Quality

ABSTRACT This article investigates worker voice as a dimension of job quality and examines its link with job‐related outcomes. We refine and test a multi‐measure concept of the ‘voice gap’ to capture how much influence workers expect to have compared to what they actually have on a set of work‐related issues. Analysing a survey of 1307 American workers, we find that workers distinguish between a voice gap on issues related to their own interests (‘worker‐issues voice gap’) and those related to their employing organization's interests (‘organizational‐strategy voice gap’). Even after controlling for other dimensions of job quality, a larger voice gap is statistically associated with lower job satisfaction and well‐being, as well as higher levels of burnout and turnover intention. Additionally, we find that worker‐issues voice gap has a stronger and more significant effect than an organizational‐strategy voice gap. Based on these results, we recommend incorporating the voice gap measure in future worker voice research and as a practical tool for evaluating voice as a dimension of job quality.