Purpose – To understand the role of listening practices in order to create organizational conditions enhancing strategic employee communication behaviour. Approach – A literature review on organizational and management conditions influencing employee organizational and communication behaviours with a particular focus on the retail sector. A case study on a retail company implementing a program for employee participation centred on an extensive listening program. Findings – Managerial practices and leadership style greatly affect employee participation and strategic communication behaviours. They signal the genuine commitment of the company to dialogue and its intentions to value both suggestions and dissent expressed by employees. Research implications – To capture the voice of employees and deepen the explanations of the processes underling the actual communication behaviour of employees. Practical implications/applications – Listening practices should adopt sophisticated research constructs to understand deep links between variables as quality of relationships and attitude to support the company. Companies are expected to implement managerial practices signalling their attitude to value strategic communication behaviours of employees.