ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE DISSERTATION

Dissertation title: Team collective voice and its roles in promoting team innovative performance
Specialization: Business Administration (E-PhD)    Specialization code: 9340101
PhD candidate: Hoang Le An
Supervisors: Dr. Tran Huy Phuong, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thi Thuc Anh

Original contributions on academic and theoretical aspects

This dissertation contributes to the employee voice literature by addressing the research gaps relating to team collective voice (TCV) – the expression of shared views, ideas, suggestions or opinions of a work team to either higher management, other teams or individuals in the organization in an attempt to challenge or change the current status quo. In light of Institutional Theory, TCV is more likely to be fostered in some contexts, such as Vietnam, with certain institutional features. Two main contributions include:

(1) The dissertation has identified three nature characteristics of TCV, its types, and formation processes, and highlighted its vital roles in various situations. Based on the characteristics, this dissertation developed an appropriate way to measure TCV that allowed further investigation about its roles and comparison with other types of employee voice.

(2) Extending the Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, this dissertation suggested employee voice can be a search routine that is used by organizations as exogenous drivers to change lower-order routines. Not only can the search take the form of tangible organizational units (i.e., research and development), but also a less tangible form that exists in day-to-day practice such as employee voice. Employee voice triggers routine changes exogenously through the process of management influence and positively contributes to team innovative performance. This offers another path that employee voice can lead to innovation through changes in routines.

Recommendations derived from the findings of the dissertation 

Based on the findings, two groups of recommendations for team members and management regarding the use of TCV have been proposed:

(1) For team members, awareness should be raised about the institutional limitations of individual voice, bringing out the existence, crucial roles, and the whole process of TCV as an alternative to individual voice. Employees then should develop appropriate strategies to raise their voice.

(2) For management, companies should pay more attention to the benefits that TCV can bring to them and have suitable enablements. It is a vital resource containing numerous innovations or constructive changes to organizations that could be lost if this voice mechanism is not fostered. Managers also need to find a balance, as the use of team collective voice might mitigate individual voice, which in some cases is more valuable than the team’s shared view. Team collective voice might be used as an instrument to silence individual members’ voices to prioritize group benefits.