Raising Concerns at Work in the Swedish Healthcare and Educational Sectors: Silence and Voice Climates

This article is based on an interview study of workers in Sweden’s healthcare and educational sectors who raise or withhold concerns about conditions at the workplace. Five groups of climates regarding concerns raised internally were found: A high voice climate, a moderate voice climate, a restrained voice climate, a resignation silence climate, and a silence and fear climate. A democratic leadership orientation lays the foundation for a voice climate based on trust and open dialogue. Silence and fear climates are created by an autocratic and retaliative leadership orientation. Also, a laissez-faire leadership can have a silencing effect on the workplace climate. Autocratic leadership and a hierarchical view on communication are silencers both regarding concerns raised internally and externally. If organisations are exposed to competition, loyalty towards the organisations tends to be strengthened in order to protect the brand, thus having a silencing effect on raising concerns externally. As a consequence, teacher practise self-censorship in order to conceal problems at their school, thereby protecting the school’s reputation on the market.