Voice, Exit and Emergent Empowerment:
Findings from a Multi-method, Cluster-randomized Trial in U.S. Fulfillment Centers

Thursday, March 5th: 4:00-6:00 PM
Walter Reuther Archives, 2nd Floor Conference Room (#200)

Erin L. Kelly is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. Kelly’s research has been published in many sociology, management, and interdisciplinary journals and twice recognized with the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award.

Building on the long tradition of research on employee voice and its potential impact on both employee and organizational outcomes, we investigate whether a new voice channel reduces turnover in e-commerce fulfillment centers. A cluster-randomized trial compared hourly workers in sites randomized to launch the new voice channel (Health and Well-Being Committees, or HaWCs) with those employed by the same firm in control sites. This participatory intervention involved a small group of frontline workers and supervisors who solicited concerns and ideas about safety, work processes, and other stressors from the broader workforce and then developed and implemented action projects in response.

Using administrative data, an intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis finds individual workers’ monthly probability of exit fell by 1.3%-points in HaWC buildings in the year after randomization, representing a 20% decline relative to pre-intervention exit rates. Using rich qualitative data and a comparative case analysis, we also ask how this opportunity for worker voice is understood by different parties and how HaWC leaders strategize in response to top management’s interest in containing the activities of HaWCs. In some buildings, the HaWCs did create space for frontline, hourly workers to deliberate on potential solutions and to participate in crafting workplace changes.

This path of emergent empowerment involves voice as participation, including voice deliberation and voice enactment, in addition to voice expression. These findings indicate the feasibility of addressing turnover through employee voice, even in tough conditions like non-unionized fulfillment centers, but also document the challenges of implementing new avenues for worker voice within workplace. 

The presentation draws on two co-authored papers involving Alex Kowalski, Hazhir Rahmandad, Kirsten Siebach, Meg Lovejoy, and Raquel Kessinger.