Lately, direct employee voice has been garnering attention from HRM and OB scholars owing to its numerous benefits within organizations. However, many questions remain unexplored: How did the surge in the adoption of direct voice influence the voice participation of workers with low-status identities such as ethnic minorities in the workplace? How do organizational practices, including the adoption of indirect voice channels, and different cultural contexts predict the involvement of these communities in direct voice? To address these important inquiries, we use the European Social Survey data across 17 countries, paired with GLOBE data tracking national cultural dimensions to examine the voice behaviors of ethnic minorities and test the strategic role enacted by effective indirect voice representation in driving direct voice engagement of these marginalized communities across different culture values (e.g., power distance, institutional collectivism, and ingroup collectivism). Consistent with Social Identity Theory, our findings indicate that ethnic workers were less likely to participate in direct voice compared to their nonethnic counterparts. Additionally, while indirect voice efficacy was found to motivate the participation of ethnic minorities in direct voice in cultures high on power distance, collectivist cultures were more likely to deter them from engaging in similar behaviors. Finally, our supplementary analysis corroborates the role of nonunion representation in bolstering direct voice participation among ethnic workers.
