The Voice of Employees in Russian Business Organizations: Conceptualization and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Evgeniya Balabanova – Doctor of Sociology, Professor, Faculty of Business and Management, Higher School of Economics. Address: 33, Kirpichnaya St., Moscow, 105187, Russian Federation. E-mail: balabanova@hse.ru
Azer Edendiev – Doctor of Philosophy, Tenured Professor, Director of the Centre for Research in Social Organization of a Firm, Higher School of Economics. Address: 33, Kirpichnaya St., Moscow, 105187, Russian Federation. E-mail: efendiev@hse.ru

The paper focuses on employee participation in decision-making in business organizations. In particular, we study how individual- and organization-level factors affect participation, and, in turn, how participation, its effectiveness and the organizational political culture affect employee attitudes to job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment and intention to stay. The empirical data for this research were collected in 2012 through a survey of employees in 17 domestic- and foreign-owned companies operating in Russia (N=623).
We find that compared to the generally low level of participation in domestic companies, foreign-owned companies tend to be more democratic. Lower levels of participation are also exhibited by respondents from Moscow, and employees who got their jobs by using social connections. In discussing our findings, we maintain that organizational ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’ are distinct organizational phenomena rather than the two poles on a single continuum. Whereas, ‘democratic’ organizational culture explicitly promotes employee participation, the ‘authoritarianism’ of organizational managers manifests itself through neglecting employee initiatives or even the imposing of negative sanctions to discourage them. We also find that Russian employees express moderate positive reactions to ‘democracy’ in their companies, however, their negative perception of ‘authoritarianism’ (expressed through job dissatisfaction and low affective organizational commitment) is clearly much stronger. In conclusion, we discuss the practical implications of our findings for the improvement of working environments and decision-making procedures in Russian organizations.