Workers’ Modes of Self-Expression and Behavioural Manifestations of Loyalty or Exit-Intentions When Engaged in Systemic Structural Activities

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to understand how employees’ modes of self-expressions affect their behavioural manifestations of loyalty or exit-intentions, when engaged in systemic strucutural activity and the influence of such activity on a firm’s organizational tolerance. The need for the study was informed by the conception that historicity of an individual’s self-regulation system relates with the individual’s subjective perception of complexity that influence the individual’s activity goal formation, which has implications on the person’s modes of self-expression while involved in a systemic activity as well as on organizational tolerance. Guided by Bedny and Karwowski's well-established knowledge that activities of individuals are realized by goal-directed actions, informed either by mental or motor conscious processes, as objects of the cognitive psychology of skills and performances, an attempt is made to understand the significance of workers mode of self-expressions on organizational tolerance in the different work setting of mining support firms in Ghana. This is based on the premise that the discovery of goals is essential to true activity, and the goals, being discrete elements of activities, can be transformed into contradictions, which may influence employees modes of self-expressions relative to prevailing organizational tolerance, and which contradictions can be expanded and generalized into a qualitatively new organizational activity structure and systemic activity contexts. Thus, building on the notion that an individual’s self-regulation system takes shape and gets transformed over lengthy periods of time, with its problems and potentials being understood only against its own history, the argument that an individual’s mode of self-expression may result in his/her (in)ability to accurately align with an organizational tolerance is explored conversely. Using the survey approach, a questionnaire was developed from standardized measurement scales and used to collect quantitative data from two hundred employees of mining-support firms. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that employees’ active- and passive-constructive voices positively correlated with their behavioural manifestations of loyalties while their active- and passive-destructive voices positively correlated with their behavioural manifestations of exist-intentions. Organizational tolerance moderated the relationships between the employees’ active-constructive and passive-constructive voices, and their job behavioural manifestations of loyalty, but did not moderate the relationship between the employees active-destructive voice and their behavioural manifestations of exist-intentions. This study is the first to be carried out in the mining sector in Ghana and the findings provide useful insight toward improving the management of employees. The insights provided will enable managers in mining-support firms in Ghana develop organizational tolerance for managing all employees’ voice-types effectively to enhance their employees’ happiness and productivities in the work environment.

Keywords: Employee voice, Organizational tolerance, Employee loyalty behaviour, Employee exit-intention behaviour, Mining-support firms, Ghana

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004741

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