Why and when are silent employees less satisfied with their jobs? A conservation of resources perspective

PurposeEmployee silence is pervasive in the workplace and can be severely detrimental to employees' job satisfaction. However, research on why and when employee silence undermines job satisfaction remains poorly understood. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, the authors proposed and tested a moderated mediation model wherein employee silence predicted job satisfaction through vigor, with positive affectivity acting as a dispositional moderator.Design/methodology/approachTwo-wave time-lagged data were collected from a sample of 183 employees in Taiwan. A moderated mediation analysis with latent variables was conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults indicated that employees' vigor mediated the negative relationship between employee silence and job satisfaction only for employees with low positive affectivity.Originality/valueBy identifying vigor as a psychological mechanism explaining the negative effect of silence on job satisfaction and positive affectivity as a buffer against the detrimental effect of silence on vigor and, indirectly, job satisfaction, the results provide a more nuanced understanding of why and when silent employees are less satisfied with their jobs.

Workplace ostracism and employee silence: an identity-based perspective

PurposeExtant research has shown that workplace ostracism (WO) elicits counterproductive work behaviors, such as employee silence (ES), culminating in reduced job performance. However, lesser is known about the factors that buffer against this underlying linkage. With an emphasis on conservation of resource (COR) theory and social identity theory, this study investigates the hitherto unexplored moderating roles of moral identification (MI) and organizational identification (OI) in the relationship between WO and ES.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a time-lagged design to collect multi-source data from 250 employees working in the service sector organizations in Pakistan. Data are analyzed in SMARTPLS (v 3.3.3) to assess the measurement model and the structural model.FindingsResults reveal that WO is positively correlated with ES and negatively correlated with job performance. At the same time, ES mediates the negative relationship between WO and job performance. In addition, MI and OI buffer against the positive connection between WO and ES. The positive association between WO and ES is less pronounced at high levels of MI and OI and vice versa.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that there is potential value in developing MI and OI, for which several interventions are discussed.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few efforts to outstretch the boundary conditions of ES. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the role of identity-based perspective in the relationship between WO and ES.

Why Won’t People Speak Up? Unpacking Silence at Work

Purpose This paper examines employee silence, namely, the causes of silence and how it might be overcome. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from academic research and work with organizations, the author explains that workplace diversity is insufficient to guarantee the contributions of diverse voices. The author then provides an overview of why individuals choose to remain silent and explores aspects of organizational culture and climate that contribute to silencing behaviors. Finally, the author offers suggestions on how organizational leaders can overcome silence. Findings The findings suggest that employee voice can be activated through a psychologically safe working environment in which leaders adopt a learning mindset, practice humility, create opportunities for all team members to contribute, treat people with fairness and respect, and hold others accountable to do the same. The findings also indicate that leaders can support safe and inclusive working environments by challenging basic assumptions and accepting vulnerability. Originality/value This paper makes an important contribution to the field of organization development and change by providing suggestions for how organizations can address workplace concerns and enhance performance by removing the inhibitors of “employee voice”.

Effect of Implicit Voice Theories on Employee Constructive Voice and Defensive Silence: A Study in Education and Health Sector

Background and Purpose: Implicit voice theories are the beliefs that are related to employee silence. This study aims to examine the implicit voice theories (don’t embarrass the boss in public, negative career consequences of voice) as predictors of employee defensive silence and employee constructive voice. Methodology: This study is a cross-sectional and an analytical study. The sample of this study consisted of 494 participants working in the healthcare sector (n = 277) and education sector (n = 217) in Turkey. We performed linear regression analyses to test our hypotheses. Results: We found that power distance and negative career consequences of voice predicted employee defensive silence while proactive personality and the belief of “don’t embarrass the boss in public” predicted employee constructive voice. These results confirm the effect of implicit voice theories on employee silence and voice. Conclusions: Employees holding the belief of “don’t embarrass the boss in public” and “negative career consequences of voice” tend to remain silent or prefer to speak with their managers privately, which prevent sharing ideas in group interactions in organization. Therefore, managers must combat the belief that speaking up is risky. In order to change these beliefs in a positive way, they should make their subordinates feel that speaking up is a valuable behavior in organization.

Abusive Supervision and its influence on Employee Silence and Organizational Productivity: Evidence from Pakistan

It is the need of every organization to maximize its profits by working with efficient and effective organizational tools and to make the best use of organizational resources. For a business to gain profit it is essential for managers and decision-makers to keep the pace of generating profits always at a certain mark. This study aims to identify potential managerial problems for businesses operating in Pakistan, specifically related to employee-supervisor relationships. The study is a novel attempt in this field as it intends to uncover the employee silence aspects in the event of abusive supervision and finds its impact on overall organizational performance. The research was carried out with a sample of 110 responses collected from public and private organizations in Pakistan. This research has identified that with the increase in abusive leadership, there will be a decrease in organizational productivity and employees’ silence will also significantly increase. Meanwhile, employee silence has a comparatively larger effect i.e., 12% on the productivity of an organization, than the direct effect of abusive supervision on productivity. The study findings accentuate that the organizational leadership team should work on maintaining fair treatment of every employee and decrease the extent of abusive supervising behaviour at work in order to maximize profits and let employees use their potential creativity to give the best output that organizations really expect them to provide.

Woes of silence: the role of burnout as a mediator between silence and employee outcomes

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of employee silence on performance and turnover intentions. In addition, it seeks to explore the mediating role of burnout in the link between employee silence, and three employee outcomes-supervisor-rated task/contextual performance and self-reported turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey questionnaire design, this paper collected data from 508 telecom engineers and their immediate supervisors and analyzed the result using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, bootstrapping.FindingsResults reveal that employee silence leads to burnout which results in debilitating employee performance, increase in withdrawal behaviors and turnover intentions; burnout mediates these direct relationships. The findings have implications for organizational behavior (OB) research. Moreover, the study found that silence has more pronounced negative effect on employee performance and positive impact on turnover intentions through mediation of job burnout.Practical implicationsThe study helps managers identify the psychological ramifications of defensive silence and the underlying mechanism that connects this to employee outcomes. It also highlights the plausible danger zones in which the employees lose self-expression and show symptoms of exhaustion and cynicism, thus ultimately affecting their performance and withdrawal behaviors.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to employee behavior literature by considering silence as an organizational loss in the backdrop of the COR theory which initiates loss process that leads to further losses in individuals.

When does benevolent leadership inhibit silence? The joint moderating roles of perceived employee agreement and cultural value orientations

PurposeThis study's purpose is to examine benevolent leadership's effect on employee silence, as moderated by perceived employee agreement on leader behaviors and cultural value orientations.Design/methodology/approachTwo-wave survey data were collected from 240 Chinese employees working in various industries. Hierarchical regression and simple slope analysis were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsBenevolent leadership was negatively related to employee silence. When perceived employee agreement on leader behaviors was high, employees with high power-distance orientation or low vertical individualism were more sensitive to benevolent leadership and engaged in less silence.Practical implicationsManagers are advised to exhibit benevolent behaviors to mitigate employees' tendency to remain silence. Organizations and managers can also design interventions to encourage employees with low power distance or high vertical individualism to speak up.Originality/valueThis study advances the understanding of the relationship between benevolent leadership and employee silence. By highlighting the moderating role of employees' perception of leader behaviors and their cultural value orientations, this study helps explain the conditions that when employees choose to keep silence or not.