The internet, the web and social media: the promise and practice of e-voice

While early research suggested that web-based technologies, such as social media, had a strong potential to enhance employee voice, more recent analysis indicates that this early promise has not been met. This chapter looks at the impact of new communication technologies on the expression of individual voice, including the proliferation of organisationally sanctioned voice mechanisms and the factors influencing employee use of them, including employers’ social media policies. On collective voice, the chapter points not only to the range of web-based mechanisms that have emerged in recent times to enhance collective engagement and action, both within and alongside trade unions, but also to emerging limitations in their capacity to revitalise unionism.