Effects of channels and decision justifications on perceptions of organizational listening

Extensive research on organizational listening has provided some general guidelines on how organizational listening should be conducted to address stakeholders’ concerns and needs. One of these guidelines relates to engaging with stakeholders on listening channels that they already use and incorporating their viewpoints into decision-making. Meanwhile, there is a lack of research that empirically explores how these practices influence perceptions. This study conducted a 3 × 4 experiment with a nationally representative sample of 426 Australian citizens. Using a hypothetical local council’s efforts to listen to its local constituents about the housing issue as an example, this study tested the effects of three channels (i.e., community forum, online form, and Facebook) and four decision justifications (i.e., consensus, majority view, strategic alignment, and further consultation) on the dynamics of trust and perceptions of selective listening, inclusive listening, and self-orientation. For listening channels, community forum was rated the highest for trust and Facebook was rated the lowest. For decision justifications, consensus and majority both increased trust but strategic alignment reduced trust. Furthermore, the models tested showed that trust enhanced perceptions of inclusive listening, which was critical for reducing perceptions of self-orientation. The findings demonstrated that in addition to how to conduct the organizational listening process, it is also crucial to consider factors that influence perceptions during the process. (198 words)