‘Good Workers’ and the Moulding of Employee Voice and Silence in Big 4 Firms

2025/07/09 by Brendan McCarthy, Michelle O’Sullivan, Elaine Doyle +1 · 1 voice
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #Labor Movements and Unions

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/irj.70006

openalex publication_date 2025/07/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines voice and silence on workplace problems in Big 4 professional service firms. Based on interviews in Ireland, workers reported problems in relation to workload and hours, underperforming colleagues, mistreatment, pay, leave time, and promotion. Silence was the dominant response reflecting workers' implicit understanding of organisationally desired worker attributes. Where voice occurred, it was individual and informal. Our analysis places voice as a site of antagonistic worker‐management relations, and we contribute to the emerging labour process critique of employee resilience as a tool of management control.

Citations

• Using thematic analysis in psychology
• Role Distancing and the Persistence of Long Work Hours in Professional Service Firms
• Managerial control and workplace regimes: an introduction

Discussions

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