Framing problems as losses makes employees speak up ^{CEFR B1}

A team of researchers, including Phil Thompson from Virginia Tech, published findings in the Journal of Applied Psychology on how problem framing affects employee voice. They define employee voice as making suggestions to improve how an organization works and note that speaking up links to better performance, safety, creativity and engagement.

The researchers analyzed responses from nearly 2,000 full-time employees, MBA students, and employee–supervisor pairs across three studies. In the first study, participants who focused on potential losses showed a 16% higher willingness to speak to a supervisor than those who focused on gains. The second study found that when a scenario suggested the whole team might miss goals, participants were 35% more likely to say they would speak up than when only an individual might miss the goal.

In a third study with employee–supervisor pairs from three industries, employees were 8–10 times more likely to speak up when issues were framed as a potential collective loss compared with a potential collective gain. The authors suggest managers can increase employee voice by framing problems as what the group might lose.