The Influence of E-Voice Content, Quantity, and Sentiment on Organizational Performance

Organizations with higher volumes of e-voice or employees voicing their ideas and opinions about their organizations in a positive way tend to have stronger financial performance than those that don’t. E-voice is a discretionary behavior or expression of ideas and opinions regarding an employee’s own or the organization’s interests through formal or informal mechanisms. The study on “The Influence of E-Voice Content, Quantity, and Sentiment on Organizational Performance” led by Professor Helena Nguyen from the University of Sydney Business School, with collaborators Jewel Tai, Sunghoon Kim from the University of Sydney, and Dr. Pinnaree Tea-makorn, Sasin’s AI Strategist, examined the impact of e-voice quantity, sentiment, and content diversity on organizational outcomes from 2015 to 2019. Professor Helena shared that e-voice is often shared via online platforms, a growing channel for employees to communicate their thoughts, as social media continues to shape how employees engage with their organizations. The study focused on three key dimensions of e-voice: the quantity of feedback, the sentiment (whether positive or negative), and the content diversity (the range of topics discussed by employees). Using machine learning techniques such as sentiment analysis and topic modelling, the researchers analyzed over 351,768 Glassdoor reviews across 355 publicly traded firms in the United States, paired with objective financial data from Compustat. The research found that organizations with higher volumes of positive e-voice consistently exhibited stronger financial performance, especially in organizations where employees expressed more positive feedback. This outcome is grounded in Organizational Social Capital Theory, which states that high-quality relationships, shared norms, trust, and mutual obligations within a workplace drive better organizational outcomes. When employees are satisfied and feel that they are heard, relational trust strengthens, fostering a deeper commitment to organizational goals, which translates into improved performance. The study also illustrates the importance of affordance theory—the idea that the perceived features of e-voice platforms, such as visibility, anonymity, and scalability, encourage employees to engage more openly and frequently. These affordances help make e-voice platforms like Glassdoor particularly effective in enabling employees to express their opinions and concerns. As a result, organizations with more active engagement from employees—especially when the tone is positive—are more likely to build stronger social capital, improve employee satisfaction, and, ultimately, experience better financial outcomes. Professor Helena advises management teams in organizations to monitor social media platforms like Glassdoor to analyse the sentiment and content of employee reviews. Positive feedback should be amplified, while negative sentiment can serve as an early indicator of potential issues within the organization, whether related to workplace culture, leadership, or other factors. Furthermore, firms should prioritize and invest in low-risk e-voice channels that are complementary to their current ones, since they can positively influence the profitability and success of a company. Since this study is focused only on e-voice in Glassdoor, Professor Helena suggests that future research should examine other similar platforms with different cultural contexts. The ability to track sentiment over time, monitor trends in feedback, and gauge employee satisfaction at scale provides management with a powerful tool to improve organizational effectiveness and drive better business outcomes.