\n<\/p>\n
The challenge then is not to ask employees to be braver, but to make speaking up less risky to begin with. When organisations clarify the kind of voice they value, measure it properly, and design the conditions that support it, speaking up stops being a gamble and starts becoming part of how work gets done.<\/p>\n
Organisations and leaders who genuinely want employees to speak up should first be precise about the type they want to encourage.<\/p>\n
A start-up might focus on promotive voice where employees are encouraged to pitch bold ideas, while a hospital might emphasise prohibitive voice where patient safety risks are flagged. Each requires different approaches and faces different barriers.<\/p>\n
A worker empowered to suggest a creative solution may not hesitate, but the same person could be reluctant to report wrongdoing if they are unsure of support. Organisations should tailor their approach to each type of speaking up because motivations and deterrents vary.<\/p>\n
Second, measure properly. Organisations seeking to understand employee voice should use well-tested and reliable measures. Psychological safety is a key antecedent across many forms of voice, and Harvard\u2019s Amy Edmondson\u2019s seven-item scale has been validated over decades of research.<\/p>\n
There is a need to be cautious of eye-catching claims and new frameworks that promise simplicity. For example, one survey claimed that Singapore workers felt the least psychologically safe in Southeast Asia but defined psychological safety narrowly as employees\u2019 willingness to share mental health struggles with their colleagues.<\/p>\n
Good measurement also requires sound data practices: guaranteeing anonymity, surveying more than once a year, and ensuring input from a representative sample (not just the loudest voices).
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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WHAT CAN BE DONE The challenge then is not to ask employees to be braver, but to make speaking up less risky to begin with….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--Mwmt7bug--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/26\/raising_hand_speaking_up_at_work_in_public.jpg?itok=fnsJfxWe","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1126,786,2225,3411,5790,10764,1186],"class_list":["post-64592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-commentary","tag-employee","tag-lah","tag-response","tag-speaks","tag-suggest","tag-wrong","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}