Speaking up in financial co‑operatives: How values and job type shape employee commitment

This article examines the relationship between employee voice and affective commitment in co-operative financial institutions. It focuses particularly on the moderating role of perceived employer orientation towards co-operative values and principles as well as job type (front- or back-office) on the relationship between two types of voice (challenging and supportive) and affective commitment. The analysis was performed with a dataset of 217 employees from 8 UK building societies. Results indicate that supportive employee voice has a clear positive relationship with affective commitment, while the effect of challenging voice is more complex. Moreover, both employee voice types correlate with higher affective commitment for employees who view their employer as little oriented towards co-operative values and principles, but not for those who rated their employer attached to these values. Finally, job type has little impact on the effects of employee voice, although a slightly more positive reaction from back-office staff is noticeable.