Abstract
Silence in organizations refers to a state in which employees refrain from calling attention to issues at work such as illegal or immoral practices or developments that violate personal, moral, or legal standards. While Morrison and Milliken (Acad Manag Rev 25:706–725, 2000) discussed how organizational silence as a top-down organizational level phenomenon can cause employees to remain silent, a bottom-up perspective—that is, how employee motives contribute to the occurrence and maintenance of silence in organizations—has not yet been given much research attention. In this paper, we argue that this perspective is a meaningful complementation of the existing literature and that it is sensible to conceptualize distinct forms of employee silence (Pinder and Harlos, Research in personnel and human resources management. JAI Press, Greenwich, 2001; van Dyne et al., J Manag Stud 40:1359–1392, 2003). Drawing on past research and theory we conceptualize four forms of employee silence, namely quiescent, acquiescent, prosocial, and opportunistic silence. We present scales to assess the four forms and provide empirical tests for their distinctiveness and patterns of relationships to various correlates and potential antecedents and consequences.
References
Adler, P. S., & Kwon, S. (2002). Social capital: Prospects for a new concept. Academy of Management Review, 27, 17–40.
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. (1978). Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Ashforth, B. E. (1985). Climate formation: Issues and extensions. Academy of Management Review, 10, 837–847.
Ashforth, B. E., & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14, 20–39.
Avery, D. R., & Quiñones, M. A. (2002). Disentangling the effects of voice: The incremental roles of opportunity, behavior, and instrumentality in predicting procedural fairness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 81–86.
Blackman, D., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2009). The silent and the silenced in organizational knowing and learning. Management Learning, 40, 569–585.
Blenkinsopp, J., & Edwards, M. S. (2008). On not blowing the whistle: quiescent silence as an emotion episode. In W. J. Zerbe, C. E. J. Härtel, & N. M. Ashkanasy (Eds.), Emotions, ethics, and decision-making (pp. 181–206). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing/JAI Press.
Bogart, K., & Stein, N. (1987). Breaking the silence: Sexual harassment in education. Peabody Journal of Education, 64(4), 146–163.
Bok, S. (1983). Secrets: On the ethics of concealment and revelation. New York: Vintage Books.
Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., & Van Heerden, J. (2004). The concept of validity. Psychological Review, 111, 1061–1071.
Bowen, F., & Blackmon, K. (2003). Spirals of silence: The dynamic effects of diversity on organizational voice. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1393–1417.
Brief, A. P., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors. Academy of Management Review, 11, 710–725.
Brinsfield, C. (2009). Employee silence: Investigation of dimensionality, development of measures, and examination of related factors. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Connelly, C. E., Zweig, D., Webster, J., & Trougakos, J. (2011). Knowledge hiding in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior (in press).
Cortina, L. M., & Magley, V. J. (2003). Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, 247–265.
Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281–302.
De Maria, W. (2006). Brother secret, sister silence: Sibling conspiracies against managerial integrity. Journal of Business Ethics, 65, 219–234.
Detert, J. R., & Burris, E. R. (2007). Leadership behavior and employee voice: Is the door really open? Academy of Management Journal, 50, 869–884.
Detert, J. R., Burris, E. R., & Chiaburu, D. S. (2008). Quitting before leaving: The mediating effects of psychological attachment and detachment on voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 912–922.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 350–383.
Edwards, M. S., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Gardner, J. (2009). Deciding to speak up or to remain silent following observed wrongdoing: The role of discrete emotions and climate of silence. In J. Greenberg & M. Edwards (Eds.), Employee voice and silence in organizations (pp. 83–109). Bingley: Emerald Press.
Edwards, M. R., & Peccei, R. (2007). Organizational identification: Development and testing of a conceptually grounded measure. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16, 25–57.
Embretson, S. E. (1983). Construct validity: Construct representation versus nomothetic span. Psychological Bulletin, 93, 179–197.
Farrell, D. (1983). Exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect as responses to job satisfaction: A multidimensional scaling study. Academy of Management Journal, 26, 596–607.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Fontes, L. A. (2007). Sin Vergüenza: Addressing shame with Latino victims of child sexual abuse and their families. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 16, 61–82.
Garfield, S. (2006). 10 reasons why people don’t share their knowledge. Knowledge Management Review, 9(2), 10–11.
Gephart, J., Detert, J., Treviño, L. K., & Edmondson, A. (2009). Silenced by fear: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 29, 163–193.
Gibson, R., & Singh, J. (2003). Wall of silence: The untold stories of the medical mistakes that kill and injure millions of Americans. Washington, DC: Lifeline Press.
Greenberg, J., Brinsfield, C. T., & Edwards, M. S. (2007). Silence as deviant work behavior: The peril of words unspoken. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York, 27–29 April.
Greenberg, J., & Edwards, M. S. (Eds.). (2009). Voice and silence in organizations. Bingley: Emerald Press.
Grenny, J. (2006). Speak-up or burn out. The Physician Executive, 32(6), 24–28.
Grice, P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 95–103.
Gruys, M. L., & Sackett, P. R. (2003). Investigating the dimensionality of counterproductive work behavior. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 11, 30–42.
Gurchiek, K. (2006). U.S. workers unlikely to report office misconduct. HR Magazine, 51(5), 38.
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Hirschman, A. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Islam, G., & Zyphur, M. J. (2005). Power, voice, and hierarchy: Exploring the antecedents of speaking up in groups. Group Dynamics, 9(2), 93–103.
Jahoda, M., Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Zeisel, H. (1972). Marienthal: The sociography of an unemployed community. London: Tavistock.
Kahn, W. A. (1990). Toward an agenda for business ethics research. Academy of Management Review, 15, 311–328.
Klammer, J., Skarlicki, D. P., & Barclay, L. (2001). Speaking up in the Canadian military: The roles of voice, being heard, and generation in predicting civic virtue. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 34(2), 122–130.
Kohn, L., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. (1999). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Liu, W., Zhu, R. H., & Yang, Y. K. (2010). I warn you because I like you: Voice behavior, employee identifications, and transformational leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 189–202.
Marques, J. M., & Paez, D. (1994). The black sheep effect: Social categorization, rejection of ingroup deviates, and perception of group variability. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 37–68). Chichester: Wiley.
Meyer, J. P., & Herscovitch, L. (2001). Commitment in the workplace: Toward a general model. Human Resource Management Review, 11, 299–326.
Meyerson, D. (2003). Tempered radicals: How everyday leaders inspire change at work. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Miceli, M. P., Near, J. P., & Dworkin, T. M. (2009). A word to the wise: How managers and policy-makers can encourage employees to report wrongdoing. Journal of Business Ethics, 86, 379–396.
Miller, A. (1993). Breaking down the wall of silence: The liberating experience of facing painful truth. New York: Meridian.
Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W., & Hewlin, P. F. (2003). Choosing to stay silent at work: What employees don’t speak about and why. Journal of Management Inquiry, 40, 1453–1476.
Mohr, G., Müller, A., Rigotti, T., Aycan, Z., & Tschan, F. (2006). The assessment of psychological strain in work contexts: Concerning the structural equivalency of 9 language adaptations of the irritation-scale. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 198–206.
Mollen Commission. (1994). Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department Report (The City of New York, New York).
Morrison, E. W., & Milliken, F. J. (2000). Organizational silence: A barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world. Academy of Management Review, 25, 706–725.
Near, J. P., & Miceli, M. P. (1985). Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing. Journal of Business Ethics, 4, 1–16.
Noelle-Neumann, E. (1974). The spiral of silence: A theory of public opinion. Journal of Communication, 24, 43–51.
Nyberg, D. (1993). The varnished truth: Truth-telling and deceiving in ordinary life. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The “good soldier” syndrome. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Perlow, L., & Repenning, N. (2009). The dynamics of silencing conflict. In B. M. Staw & A. P. Brief (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 29, pp. 195–223). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Perlow, L., & Williams, S. (2003). Is silence killing your company? Harvard Business Review, 81(5), 52–58.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (Eds.). (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington, DC and New York: APA and Oxford University Press.
Pinder, C. C., & Harlos, K. P. (2001). Employee silence: Quiescence and acquiescence as response to perceived injustice. In G. R. Ferris (Ed.), Research in personnel and human resources management (Vol. 20, pp. 331–369). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903.
Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (1999). Composure at any cost? The cognitive consequences of emotion suppression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1033–1044.
Rosen, S., & Tesser, A. (1970). On reluctance to communicate undesirable information: The MUM effect. Sociometry, 33, 253–263.
Rothwell, G. R., & Baldwin, J. N. (2007). Ethical climate theory, whistle blowing, and the code of silence in police agencies in the state of Georgia. Journal of Business Ethics, 70, 341–361.
Ryff, C. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.
Schneider, B., & Reichers, A. E. (1983). On the etiology of climates. Personnel Psychology, 36, 19–39.
Sheriff, R. E. (2000). Exposing silence as cultural censorship: A Brazilian case. American Anthropologist, 102, 114–132.
Skarlicki, D. P., & Folger, R. (1997). Retaliation in the workplace: The roles of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 434–443.
Tangirala, S., & Ramanujam, R. (2008a). Employee silence on critical work issues: The cross-level effects of procedural justice climate. Personnel Psychology, 61, 37–68.
Tangirala, S., & Ramanujam, R. (2008b). Exploring nonlinearity in employee voice: The effects of personal control and organizational identification. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 1189–1203.
Tannen, D. (1985). Silence: Anything but. In D. Tannen & M. Saville-Troike (Eds.), Perspectives on silence (pp. 93–111). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Thibaut, J. W., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. New York: Wiley.
Thompson, J. A., & Bunderson, J. S. (2003). Violations of principle, ideological currency in the psychological contract. Academy of Management Review, 28, 571–586.
Trautman, N. E. (2001). Police code of silence: Facts revealed. Law and Order Magazine, 49, 68–76.
Trinkaus, J., & Giacalone, J. (2005). The silence of the stakeholders: Zero decibel level at enron. Journal of Business Ethics, 58, 237–248.
Umphress, E. E., & Bingham, J. B. (2011). When employees do bad things for good reasons: Examining unethical pro-organizational behaviors. Organization Science, 26, 621–640.
Van Dick, R. (2001). Identification in organizational contexts: Linking theory and research from social and organizational psychology. International Journal of Management Reviews, 3, 265–283.
Van Dick, R. (2004). My job is my castle: Identification in organizational contexts. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 19, 171–203.
Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., & Botero, I. C. (2003). Conceptualizing employee silence and employee voice as multidimensional constructs. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1359–1392.
Waterman, A. S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 678–691.
Weaver, G. R. (2006). Virtue in organizations: Moral identity as a foundation for moral agency. Organization Studies, 27, 341–368.
Weinberger, D., Schwartz, G. E., & Davidson, R. J. (1979). Low-anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: Psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 369–380.
Williamson, O. E. (1985). The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: Free Press.
Zhang, X., Qing, C., & Grigoriou, N. (2011). Consciousness of social face: The development and validation of a scale measuring desire to gain face versus fear of losing face. Journal of Social Psychology, 151, 129–149.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Knoll, M., van Dick, R. Do I Hear the Whistle…? A First Attempt to Measure Four Forms of Employee Silence and Their Correlates. J Bus Ethics 113, 349–362 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1308-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1308-4