Given the pervasiveness of employee silence, this article explores different forms of employee silence and silence antecedents. In particular, this article classifies employee silence using two ...dimensions: the target’s solicitation and the employee’s decision basis of conscious silence desirability. Drawing on relevant literature, it is proposed that employee silence can be classified into three distinct forms: unsolicited predetermined employee silence, unsolicited issue-based employee silence, and solicited target-based employee silence. When considering antecedents of employee silence, we claim that unsolicited predetermined employee silence is an outcome of personality traits, that unsolicited issue-based employee silence is triggered by functional motives, and that solicited target-based employee silence is determined by social relationships and relational experiences. By investigating forms of employee silence, this article provides important implications for theory and managerial practice.
The aggressive humor of leaders affects the psychological state of employees, which can easily lead to employee inaction in the organization and may even prompt employees to engage in unethical ...behaviors. In the context, this study conducted a questionnaire survey of 316 Chinese adult employees to examine the mechanism underlying the relationship between leader aggressive humor and employee silence. Results demonstrated that leader aggressive humor is positively correlated with employee silence; psychological security plays a mediating role between leader aggressive humor and employee silence; coworker support positively moderates (buffers) the relationship between leader aggressive humor and psychological security, and coworker support plays a moderating role in the process of the indirect influence of leader aggressive humor on employee silence through psychological security. These findings expand the research of aggressive humor and employee silence, have important significance for reducing the occurrence of aggressive humor and building a harmonious organizational environment.
•Leader aggressive humor is positively correlated with employee silence.•Psychological security plays a mediating role between leader aggressive humor and employee silence.•Coworker support positively moderates (buffers) the relationship between leader aggressive humor and psychological security.
Over the past decade, hundreds of studies have been published on employee voice and silence. In this review, I summarize that body of work, with an emphasis on the progress that has been made in our ...understanding of when and why employees choose to speak up or remain silent, as well as the individual and organizational implications of these choices. I identify underexplored issues, limitations in how voice has been conceptualized and studied, and promising avenues for future research. Although there has been notable progress in our knowledge of voice and silence, numerous key questions remain, and there are opportunities for the literature on voice to adopt a broader view of that construct. One of the objectives of this review is to motivate and guide research that will address those questions and explore that broader view.
Employees withholding their opinions is pervasive in organizations. However, the individual outcomes of employee silence have not been frequently investigated. Previous studies have found that there ...are detrimental effects of employee silence and building on this research stream, the study viewed perceived stress as an underlying mechanism linking employee silence to task performance and deviant behavior. Moreover, this study explored the moderating effect of interpersonal trust in the relationship between employee silence and perceived stress. Using a sample of 231 white-collar employees from China, this study found perceived stress to mediate the relationships between employee silence and task performance and deviant behavior. Also, coworker trust was found to moderate the relationship between employee silence and perceived stress. As coworker trust moderated the relationship, supplementary analyses further found mediated moderation for the model.
The aim of the study was to answer whether there is a relationship between organisational cynicism and communication. Organizational cynicism is considered to be an attitude towards those in power in ...an organization. Communication is analysed in its two aspects: “onstage”, where information is expected to be shared to achieve the company’s goals, and “offstage”, beyond the organizational rules and procedures, which mostly satisfies employees’ need for information. The flow of information is blocked “onstage” if employees keep silent and it flows freely offstage when they gossip. It was hypothesised that the cognitive aspect of the cynical attitude would predict negative gossip about superiors, and its affective aspect would predict employee silence. To verify the hypotheses, two correlational studies and one experimental study were conducted with participants recruited from different organisations (N = 472). The results showed that cognitive cynicism is related to an increase in negative gossip about a supervisor and partly support the expectation about relation between affective cynicism and employee silence. The results are discussed in the context of practical consequences of the relations between organizational cynicism and communication.
This study aims to examine the effect of favouritism on competencies through employee silence. The phenomenon of employee silence has been defined as a mediating variable that is affected by ...favouritism, and which affects employee competencies. Data collected from 420 employees working in hotels in the Thrace Region based on a face-to-face survey method were used to test the research hypotheses with partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that favouritism is an obstacle that causes employee silence and, more importantly, reduces the competencies of employees, as they are not treated fairly in terms of their skills, experience, knowledge, and abilities. In addition, it may be concluded that employee silence is a factor that directly reduces competencies. While there is some discussion about the possible impacts of obstacles such as favouritism and employee silence on competencies, it can be observed that there are few studies that address their relationship separately. This research is among the first to empirically reveal employee silence as the mediator between favouritism practices and employee competencies, expanding the understanding of how silence can work as a mediator in the hospitality businesses.
PurposePrevious studies have found that abusive supervision undermines employees' work motivation and attitudes, namely work engagement and job satisfaction. However, less is known about the ...mechanisms by which abusive supervision negatively relates to employees' work engagement and job satisfaction. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examines employee silence as a mediating mechanism linking abusive supervision to employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from a sample of 233 full-time employees of a large hotel service company in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that abusive supervision has a positive association with employee silence. Moreover, the results showed that employee silence mediates the negative associations of abusive supervision with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that organizational managers should provide supervisors with leadership interventions to prevent the occurrence of abusive supervision. Furthermore, organizational managers should provide employees with opportunities to voice their concerns through the use of organizational communication and participation, which can reduce employee silence and subsequently foster employee engagement and satisfaction at work.Originality/valueThis study advances our understanding of how abusive supervision results in poor work motivation and attitudes among employees. This contributes to the literature by identifying employee silence as a suitable mediating mechanism linking the negative associations of abusive supervision with employees' work engagement and job satisfaction.
Although research has emphasized the organizational and individual factors that influence employee voice and silence at work, it is less known how employee voice/silence is affected by the economic ...context, particularly when this context is one of intensive and long-term economic crisis in a country with weak institutional bases. In this study, we explore how employee silence is formulated in long-term turbulent economic environments and in more vulnerable organizational settings like those of small enterprises. The study draws on qualitative data gathered from 63 interviews with employees in a total of 48 small enterprises in Greece in two periods of time (2009 and 2015). This study suggests a new type of employee silence, social empathy silence, and offers a conceptual framework for understanding the development of silence over time in particular contexts of long-term turbulence and crisis.
•The paper considers potential contributions of internal communication to employee engagement.•Two aspects of employee voice are highlighted: upward employee voice; senior manager receptiveness.•The ...paper focusses on organisational employee engagement rather than job or work engagement.•The empirical study investigates the interplay between employee voice and organisational employee engagement.•Findings highlight the importance of both aspects of employee voice for organisational engagement.
Employee engagement is recognised as important for organisational effectiveness and a factor in achieving innovation and competiveness. Despite the importance of engagement, relatively little research has yet been done on communication and engagement. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge in this area by providing insight on internal communication and organisational level employee engagement. The paper reports the results of a study exploring associations between aspects of internal communication and organisational engagement. Taking an employee-centric approach, the paper investigates employee satisfaction with opportunities to exercise their voice, and assesses employee views on the quality of senior management receptiveness to employee voice. The paper aims to address gaps in the literature by exploring potential associations between employee voice and organisational engagement.
A questionnaire was used to gather data from 2066 participants in five UK-based organisations. The questionnaire used in the study was designed to explore satisfaction with upward employee voice and senior management receptiveness. It also enables exploration of the relationship between upward employee voice, senior manager receptiveness and emotional organisational engagement. A significant and positive relationship was found between upward employee voice and emotional organisational engagement; and between senior manager receptiveness and emotional organisational engagement. Regression analysis suggests that the majority of the employee voice variables included in the study predict emotional organisational engagement. While the study involved data collected from a reasonably large number of participants, it was limited to five UK-based organisations.
The paper includes reflection on practical implications of the findings for internal communication management. In particular, it considers implications for senior management communication with employees including building employee voice into internal corporate communication strategies and plans. Suggestions for further research are included. The paper contributes to employee engagement literature by expanding insight on organisational engagement. Since relatively little previous research has considered the interplay between internal communication, organisational engagement and employee voice, the study makes a useful contribution to an under-researched area.
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