When based on a listening leadership style and a genuine wish for dialogue, internal social media can make employees speak up about good and bad things in the company. And that is worth its weight in gold for business.
Surprise went through Jyske Bank as well as the rest of Danish business and industry when managing director Anders Dam threatened to close the staff magazine around the turn of the millennium, arguing that it had become tidings of a much too rose-coloured nature. He was no longer interested in reading a magazine in which employees applauded each other for work well done. Instead, he wanted a forum where the problems he already knew existed in Jyske Bank could come out in the open.
But even though the managing director gave his permission for complaints and criticism, nothing really happened at first*.
“This clearly shows that a Magna Carta is not enough to achieve an open communication culture in the workplace. Employees also need to feel that someone is listening to their views and that it is safe to discuss problematic issues, e.g. that you do not risk punitive measures when you voice your concerns and ideas for improvement,” says Winni Johansen, professor at the Department of Management at Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University.
The use of internal social media
About 15 years after Anders Dam put forward his threat, Winni Johansen acted as PhD supervisor for Vibeke Thøis Madsen. As part of her dissertation, Vibeke explored the internal social media of Jyske Bank and other companies in order to determine their impact on employee roles and management.
“On this basis, I wrote an article on how the companies from my research dealt with internal social media and which types of self-censorship the employees imposed on themselves. But after I had written all the articles for my PhD dissertation, exciting unused data remained. Therefore, I wrote the article ‘A spiral of voice? When employees speak up on internal social media’ together with Winni Johansen,” explains Vibeke Thøis Madsen, who now works as a senior researcher within strategic communication at DMJX – Danish School of Media and Journalism.
” You have to communicate in a way that helps employees come forward and demonstrates that it is safe to talk about issues and problems, and that employees will not be sanctioned for doing so. If you are open, listening and enter into dialogue with your employees, internal social media can prove a valuable channel for the thoughts, ideas, experiences and opinions that exist in the company. And that might be worth its weight in gold for business,”
Vibeke Thøis Madsen, senior researcher within strategic communication at DMJX – Danish School of Media and Journalism
A new concept: The spiral of voice
The research article – for which they won the Emerald Literati Outstanding Paper Award last year – uses Vibeke Thøis Madsen’s data from Jyske Bank to examine how employees can deploy different discursive tactics to gain support for their cause on internal social media, and how this can develop into a “spiral of voice”. A positive spiral of voice that can move an issue from operational to strategic level, from something which is discussed down in the organisation to something which is addressed at management level and thus has a much better chance of creating real change.
“For many years, literature in this field has talked about the spiral of silence, meaning that people in a group will not dare voice an opinion from fear of what the others think. Or because you believe there is no support for your point of view. But in this case, we see that the employees at Jyske Bank actually do voice opinions and that – when management listens to their comments – it causes even more people to speak their mind. Instead of the usual downward spiral in which people remain silent and issues are not brought to light, we observed that more people dared to speak up and we called it spiral of voice. A positive spiral of voice which enables more people to talk openly,” Winni Johansen explains.
Polite communication
This is the case even though employees stand to lose more on internal social media than on external social media. In a workplace context, they risk being overlooked for a promotion, becoming isolated from coworkers who might not want to be associated with a “troublemaker”, or getting fired as a worst case scenario. Their apprehension in terms of their own position does make employees more strategic when they venture out on internal social media compared with what you would typically observe on external social media. Everyone is being polite, friendly and constructive in their criticism. It is important not to blame someone in particular, so if you comment on an IT problem, you are careful not to frame it as if a specific person from the IT department is responsible. At other times, you use the values of the bank as backing in expressions such as: “This is not the way it ought to be in the most customer-oriented bank in Denmark.” Or you try to make sure that those who are hesitant will dare come out in the open by writing something like: “The amount of likes on the last comment suggests that...”
“The tone is polite, friendly and constructive, and there are very few of the dramatic emotional outbursts we see on external social media,” says Vibeke Thøis Madsen.
Visibility requires answers
The topics being discussed are visible to everyone in the open forum, and this forces management or other responsible parties to enter the scene and respond to employee concerns. Ignoring them would prompt a ‘double crisis’ in which you are not only criticised for the issues that employees bring to light, but also quite possibly for the way you respond to and handle communication about those issues.
At Jyske Bank, the management responds – often after one or two days. The reason could be that they want to examine issues properly before responding, or they might wait to see if there will be any further comments. Management might also respond that no changes will be made, but they will then give reasons which explain why and provide employees with a perspective they had not considered. This fosters a high level of transparency.
“When the managers respond, their tone is just as polite and constructive as that of the employees. This is definitely a result of the communication culture in Jyske Bank. In order to express yourself on internal social media – a place where everyone can see who says what and how questions are answered – you need an open and constructive communication culture that makes people dare to articulate what you are doing wrong. The fact that this is the case in Jyske Bank is no guarantee of the same result in another organisation. It depends on who you are and how you communicate and deal with the issues,” says Winni Johansen.
Open communication and error management culture
If managers want to take advantage of the opportunities for detecting small but business-critical signals presented by internal social media, they have to go for it and dare to receive criticism and make mistakes.
“You have to communicate in a way that helps employees come forward and demonstrates that it is safe to talk about issues and problems, and that employees will not be sanctioned for doing so. If you are open, listening and enter into dialogue with your employees, internal social media can prove a valuable channel for the thoughts, ideas, experiences and opinions that exist in the company. And that might be worth its weight in gold for business,” says Vibeke Thøis Madsen.
If you are able to create a constructive dialogue about relevant suggestions for change as well as inform people of how you will act on these suggestions, it can improve both satisfaction and performance among employees. This is great news for companies. By making use of internal social media in a way both critical and constructive, you might be able to anticipate problems which otherwise might be observed from the outside at a later point.
“If you are able to solve the customer complaints you hear about before the issues grow too large, you will get a stronger and more robust organisation, seeing as you share knowledge of the issues you experience with those reading along on internal social media. When these people meet your customers, they will have sufficient information to provide great service and solve the customer’s problem. All things being equal, this makes your company more powerful and resilient. But it requires managers who are willing to respond, step forward and allow critical voices to be heard,” says Vibeke Thøis Madsen, continuing:
“You have to consider it carefully. You should not just launch internal social media because they are democratic – they entail a certain element of politics because employees want to protect themselves and their position and managers have to take time to respond and exercise good management practices. On the other hand, the investment might return tenfold.”
NOTES:* Stanek, H. (2003). Et frit blad skaber debat i banken. Finansforbundet. Magasinet finans. 03.07.2003. SOURCES: Journal of Communication Management Vol. 23 No. 4, 2019 pp. 331-347 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1363-254X DOI 10.1108/JCOM-03-2019-0050 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JCOM-03-2019-0050/full/pdf?title=a-spiral-of-voice-when-employees-speak-up-on-internal-social-media FAKTA: Award-winning positive spiral of voice
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