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Are you listening to me? An investigation of employee perceptions of listening.

Schroeder, Tiffany, Schroeder
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4032-845X
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1465581382

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Organizational Behavior.
Modern organizations rely on individuals to speak up with ideas, concerns, and suggestions. In short, they require employees to be proactive not just in the actions that they take, but in their communications as well. An accumulation of evidence from the areas of employee voice, silence, and issue-selling suggests that perceptions of listening are important for the open sharing of thoughts, concerns, and suggestions relating to the ongoing flow of work in organizations. Still, research lags when it comes to understanding the experience of listening and the path to its workplace outcomes. Specifically, there are a multitude of terms used to describe listening whereas there are few rigorous attempts to examine the process and properties from the perspective of the person who speaks up. This dissertation explores listening perceptions from multiple angles. First, drawing from interdependence theory I offer a conceptual explanation for how and why perceptions of listening are formed. Then, I draw on organizational support theory to suggest that listening is a powerful but missing predictor of perceived organizational support. To test the relative strength of perceived listening as a predictor of perceived organizational support I compared it against other well-known predictors using dominance analysis. Results from the analysis of survey data from 120 adults working in various fields suggest that perceived listening is an even more powerful predictor than was expected. Specifically, it completely dominated both leader-member exchange and perceived supervisor support in the prediction of perceived organizational support. Finally, I present the results of a qualitative study of 42 in-depth interviews with bank employees to address the research question `How do employees perceive and engage in workplace listening experiences?’ From these data I build a process model of listening perceptions. This model sheds light on the situations in which employees attend to listening, the people they see as key listeners, and the process through which they construct assessments of listening.
Ronald Fry (Committee Chair)
Corinne Coen (Committee Member)
Avraham Kluger (Committee Member)
Melvin Smith (Committee Member)
Casey Newmeyer (Committee Member)
175 p.
Communication; Management; Organizational Behavior
listening; communications; perceived organizational support; organizational support theory; OCB; well being; interdependence; relationships; perceptions

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schroeder, Schroeder, T. (2016). Are you listening to me? An investigation of employee perceptions of listening. [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1465581382

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schroeder, Schroeder, Tiffany. Are you listening to me? An investigation of employee perceptions of listening. 2016. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1465581382.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schroeder, Schroeder, Tiffany. "Are you listening to me? An investigation of employee perceptions of listening." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1465581382

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1465581382
463
© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.