Employee voice and perceived attractiveness: are less attractive employees ignored in the workplace?

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine the effect of employees' perceived physical attractiveness on the extent to which their voices are “listened to” by management.

Design/methodology/approach

Using an experimental research design, the paper estimates main effects of employee attractiveness and possible moderating effects of employee race and gender as well as the gender of their “managers.”

Findings

The results suggest that, with few exceptions, more physically attractive employees are significantly more likely to have their suggestions acted upon by managers than less attractive employees, pointing to a powerful form of workplace discrimination. This finding holds across races, with more attractive white, black, and Asian employees exerting a more impactful voice than their less attractive counterparts, although the moderation appears to be stronger for whites than ethnic minorities.

Research limitations/implications

The results have important implications for the extant literatures on employee voice, diversity and discrimination.

Originality/value

This is among the first studies to demonstrate that less attractive employees suffer from an “employee voice deficit” vis-à-vis their more attractive counterparts.

Citation

Timming, A.R., Baumann, C. and Gollan, P. (2021), "Employee voice and perceived attractiveness: are less attractive employees ignored in the workplace?", Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 26-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPEO-02-2020-0005