What Motivates Employees to Speak Up?

Allowing employees to express their opinions can help businesses innovate and identify their own flaws. Most employees, however, remain silent out of the fear of being perceived negatively. As a result, leaders must understand what motivates employees to speak up. This HBR research article discusses what motivates employees to speak up and express their opinions without the fear of being judged negatively and having their opinions valued.

Employees’ proclivity to express their opinions is influenced by both their individual personalities and the corporate culture in which they work, as explained at the outset to what motivates employees to speak up. However, the study found that corporate culture has enormous power to override the role of personality in shaping employees’ voices and suppress them unintentionally. According to the study, the first and one of the most important factors that motivates employees to speak up is the right environment. As a result, the article suggests that the first step in empowering employee voices is to create a safe and suitable company culture. Creating a company culture that emphasizes the concept of choice is critical because having choices motivates employees to speak up. According to the results of the research, employees were more likely to share their ideas and opinions at a company whose culture gave priority to giving choice to each and every individual. It is equally important to welcome different points of view according to the article. To make employees feel valued, every opinion should be respected, even if it differs from the majority. When considering what motivates employees to speak up, this is right at the top. This is because having their opinions respected fosters trust, allowing them to freely share. The article emphasizes creating a participatory environment as one of the final and most important factors which motivates employees to speak up. People are naturally drawn to sharing their thoughts and opinions when a culture of participation is encouraged. The research strongly advises leaders to foster a culture of participation and choice in order to get the most out of their employees.

Receiving input from your employees in the form of opinions and thoughts not only helps you understand the shortcomings but also helps to create a positive work environment. Unfortunately, getting the most out of their team is a difficult task for leaders. As a result, it is critical for them to understand what motivates employees to speak up. If you are unsure where to begin, this study, published on HBR will undoubtedly assist you.