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Organizational Silence (Basic Concepts and Its

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Ideal Type of Management
Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2012
PP. 47-58

Organizational Silence
(Basic Concepts and Its Development Factors)
Ghodratollah Bagheri Ph.D.1, Reihaneh Zarei2*, Mojtaba Nik Aeen3

1. Assistant Professor in Tehran University, Qom College, Iran

2.3. B.A. Student in Public Management, Qom College, University of Tehran, Iran

(Received: 18 December 2011; Accepted: 21 April 2012)

Abstract
There are powerful forces in many organizations that cause
widespread withholding of information about potential problems or
issues by employees named as organizational silence. The base of our
model factors are from Morrison & Milliken .They know organizational
silence as a collective phenomenon and these factors have been
organized under levels of analysis (1) Top management team
characteristics, (2) Organizational and environmental characteristics, (3)
Affecting employee interaction, (4) Managerial belief, (5) Organizational
structures and policies, (6) Managements fear of negative feedback and
(7) Demographic dissimilarity.

Keywords
Organizational Silence, Silence of Employees, voice.

* Corresponding Author E-mail: [email protected]

48

Introduction
Organizational silence is a behavioral choice that can deteriorate or
improve organizational performance. Excluding its emotionally difficult
expression, silence can convey approval and sharing or disfavor and
opposition, thus becoming a pressure mechanism for both individuals and
organizations (Gambarotto et al., 2010). During the 1980s, silence and
voice were studied through the lens of justice theory. Issues of fairness
and mechanisms of voice in organizational settings were the main focus.
The exposure of corporate scandals and ethics violations brought a
scholarly focus on whistle blowing and boat rocking. In the 1990s,
scholars continued to focus on voice mechanisms and it was not until the
year 2000, as a result of Morrison and Millikens highly publicized
article in the Academy of Management Review, that scholars began to
focus on the relation between management practices, organizational
policies and silence and other antecedents to a climate of silence
(Bogosian, 2012). So in this review definitions, effects of silence on
organization and employees, and one of the important model of
organizational silence will be discussed.

Employee Silence / Voice

Although the primary focus of this paper is on employee silence, a
thorough understanding of this concept requires an examination of how
both silence and voice have been examined. While silence is considered
significant beyond simply the absence of voice, the two constructs are
inexorably related and hence much of the voice literature informs a
deeper understanding of silence.
For over 50 years, researchers have been interested in silence and
voice related concepts. Employees often have ideas, information and
opinions for constructive ways to improve work and work organizations.
Sometimes these employees practice voice and express their ideas,
information, and opinions; and other times they remain silent and
withhold their ideas, information, and opinions. Apparently, expressing
and withholding behaviors might appear to be polar opposites because
silence implies not speaking while voice implies speaking up on
important issues and problems in organizations (Zehir & Erdogan, 2011).
Hirschman defined voice as any attempt at all to change, and he
suggested that it becomes a better way of preventing decay in
organizational performance when an exit is unavailable. He was a
forerunner of voice investigation, but his analysis of motivations focused
on the voice and exit reaction functions instead of voice and silence. In
the management literature, silence is not simply defined as the opposite
Organizational Silence... 49

of voice in the sense that we cannot qualify silence and voice with just
the act or absence of speaking up (Gambarotto et al., 2010).
Therefore, voice can be defined as the expression of ideas,
information, opinions or concerns while silence can be defined as
withholding those (Brinsfield et al., 2009).While traditional
conceptualizations of silence refer to be passive behavior, not all forms of
silence represent passive behavior, and all silence is not merely the
opposite of voice. Instead, as suggested by Pinder and Harlos, silence can
be active, conscious, intentional, and purposeful (Zehir & Erdogan,
2011).
Finally, Brinsfields results (2009) indicate that employee silence is
pervasive, multi-dimensional, can reliably be measured, and is
significantly related to other important organizational behavior
phenomena.

Definition of organizational silence

Early definitions of silence equated it with loyalty and the
assumption that nothing was wrong if concerns were not being voiced.
But researchers today have shown that a climate of silence can work
against desired organizational outcomes (Aylsworth, 2008). Different
definitions from organizational silence are as follows :
Pinder and Harlos (2001) defined silence as the absence of voice as it
has its own form of communication, involving a range of cognitions,
emotions or intentions such as objection or endorsement. Additionally,
they recognized that the phenomenon of employee silence might take on
different meanings depending on its underlying motives.
Van Dyne, Ang and Botero conceptualized organizational silence as
a multi-dimensional construct and present three types of silence,
acquiescent silence, defensive silence and prosocial silence. Acquiescent
silence is described as an intentionally passive silent behavior. Defensive
silence is described as deliberate omission of work related information
based on fear of reprisal. Prosocial silence is withholding of work related
information for the benefit of others including the organization
(Bogosian, 2012).
Morrison and Milliken see organizational silence as a collective
phenomenon. They ground the question why silence? in the sociology of
the workplace, not the psychology of individual workers (Maria, 2006: 226).
They proposed that when most members of organizations choose to keep
silent about organizational matters, silence becomes a collective behavior,
which is referred to as organizational silence (Dan et al., 2009: 1647).
Actually, organizational silence is an inefficient organizational process
50

that wastes cost and efforts and can take various forms, such as collection
silence in meetings, low levels of participation in suggestion schemes, low
levels of collective voice and so forth (Shojaie et al., 2011).
So employee silence refers to situations where employees withhold
information that might be useful to the organization to which they are a part
of whether intentionally or unintentionally. This can happen if employees do
not speak up to a supervisor or manager (Subra Tangirala, 2008).

Effects of Silence on Organization and Employees

Organizational Effects
Employee silence is extremely detrimental to organizations often
causing an escalating level of dissatisfaction among employees, which
manifests itself in absenteeism and turnover and perhaps other undesired
behaviors (Colquitt and Greenberg: 311-312).
Communication is the key to an organizations success. If employee
silence does occur, communication suffers and as a result harms the
overall functioning of the organization. In an article entitled Get
Talking author Chris Penttila says, Employee silence is killing
innovation and perpetuating poorly planned projects that lead to defective
products, low morale and a damaged bottom line (Pentilla, 2003).
This indicates how much an organization can suffer just because of a
lack of proper communication. In an article titled Re-Creating the
Indifferent Employee Carla Joinson talks about negative effects of
employee silence such as monetary losses to the organization. Over time
silence within organizations causes some employees to be extremely
indifferent. Indifferent employees are those who are indifferent to their
jobs, employers and quality of work (Joinson, 1996).
Indifferent employees cause the organization to lose money and
function poorly. Unfortunately when major monetary losses are detected
in organizations, managers tend to react by trying to recover the loss,
overlooking the fact employees have become indifferent as a result of
unaddressed employee silence. More often than not employees who are
not doing their share of the work are also not speaking up with the
problems they see, leading to a perpetual cycle of employee silence
(Joinson, 1996).
Effects on Employees
Employee silence also has many effects on the employees
themselves. Indifferent employees, often products of ignored employee
silence, tend to feel like cogs at machinery factories, developing the
attitude to get along, go along (Joinson: 1048).
Organizational Silence... 51

Of this attitude employees sometimes develop depression and other

health problems. Sometimes these employees use pills and alcohol as a
cure for the problems they are experiencing at work, which actually
make their problems worse. In the book Moose on the Table by Jim
Clemmer, Pete who is the main character of the book develops these
types of health problems (Clemmer, 2008).
Another example of such effects on employees is articulated by
researcher Subrahmaniam Tangirala who says that employee silence
affects the personal well-being of employees, increases stress, and
causes them to feel guilty, where they often experience psychological
problems, and have trouble seeing the possibility of change.
Most people assume that employee silence only hurts the
organization, but realistically it hurts both the organization and the
employees.

The Development of Organizational Silence

Figure 1 provides an overview of the organizational condition under
which organizational silence is most likely to develop. Fundamentally,
organizational silence is an outcome that owes its origins to (1) managers'
fear of negative feedback and (2) a set of implicit beliefs often held by
managers (Morrison & Milliken, 2000: 708).

Managers' Fear of Negative Feedback

One important factor that facilitates the creation of a climate of
silence in organization is top managers' fear of receiving negative
feedback, especially from subordinates. Argyris and schone (1978) argue
that many managers feel a strong need to avoid embarrassment, threat,
and feeling of vulnerability or incompetence. Hence, they will tend to
avoid any information that might suggest weakness or that might raise
questions about current courses of action (Argyris& schone, 1978).
52

Figure1: Dynamics Giving

Top Management
Team Characteristics Rise to Organizational Silence
Proportion of
member with a Factor Affecting
Organizational and Employee Interaction
finance or Environmental Characteristics
economics Similarity among
Low-munificence
background employees
environment
Average tenure Workforce stability
Mature or stable industry
Cultural Workflow
Vertical differentiation
background interdependence
External hiring of senior
Demographic Network strength
managers
dissimilarity with and density
Reliance on contingent
respect to
workers
employees

Collective Sense
Making via
Implicit Managerial Interaction and
Belief Communication
Belief that
Organizational
employee are
Structures and
self-interested
Policies
Belief that
Climate
management
of
knows best Centralization of Silence Organizational
Belief that decision making Silence
unity is good Lack of formal
and dissent is upward feedback
bad mechanisms

Degree of Demographic
Dissimilarity between
Employee and Top
Managers

Managerial Practices
Managements Tendency to reject or respond negatively to
Fear of Negative dissent or negative feedback
Feedback Lack of informal solicitation of negative
feedback
Organizational Silence... 53

Managers' Implicit Beliefs

Another important factor that lies at the root of organizational silence
is a set of beliefs that managers often implicitly hold about employees
and about the nature of management. One such belies is that employees
are self-interested and untrustworthy. When an organization' top-level
managers believe employees are self-interested and untrustworthy, they
will then act in ways that discourage upward communication (Redding,
1985: 250).
A second unstated belief is likely to create conditions conducive to
organizational silence is the belief that management knows best about
most issues of organizational importance. Redding point to the implicit
belief among managers hired hands should put up or shut up" (Redding,
1985: 250). If employees are self-interested, then they are unlikely to
know about what is best for organization.
A third unstated belief as a factor in creating a climate conducive to
wide-spread silence is the belief that unity, agreement and consensus are
sings of organizational health, whereas disagreement and dissent should
be avoided. Burrell and Morgan (1979) describe this belief as part of the
"unitary view" of organizations, which stands in stark contrast to a
"pluralistic view", in which dissent is regarded as normal and conflict as
potentially healthy.
Conditions Fostering Managers' Implicit Beliefs: top management
team characteristics and organizational and environmental characteristics.
Because the belief about employees being self-interested and
untrustworthy are rooted in economic models of human behavior, they
are more likely to be held by those whose training and job experience
have been oriented toward economics or finance, and these beliefs are
likely to be solidified when ones peers hold them as well. Further, the
more homogeneous the top management team is with respect to
functional training and experience. Also impact of functional background
will be intensified when the composition of the top management team is
stable over time. The longer top managers have been together, the more
entrenched their shared assumptions will tend to be and the less likely the
members will be to question those assumption (Pfeffer, 1997).
The cultural background of the top management team also may affect
the beliefs that its members hold about employees. For example, if the
top management team is composed of individuals who all come from
high power distance cultures, these managers especially will be likely to
believe that they know best. In high power distance cultures, individuals
are much more likely to believe that the boss is right merely because he
or she is the boss.
54

Also expect that the similarity or dissimilarity of the demographic

profile of the top management team in comparison to that of lower-level
employees might influence the prevalence of silence-creating beliefs.
Hence, the greater the demographic dissimilarity, the more likely it is that
top management will view employee input with suspicion (Cosier &
Schwenk, 1994).
Organization-level and environmental variables are also likely to
affect the likelihood that silence-fostering beliefs will be held by top
management.
Also predict that the belief structure contributing to organizational
silence will be more likely to dominate management thought in more
mature and stable industries than in newer and/or volatile industries. In
order to survive, organizations in high-velocity environment need to
become adept at considering alternatives and responding to changes in
their environment.
High vertical differentiation is also likely to reinforce silence-
creating beliefs. Also within tall organizational structures, top managers
will be less likely to interact with employees.
In addition, firm that brings in top managers from the outside may be
more likely to create a gap between top management and the rest of the
organization. Top managers will view employees as untrustworthy.
Finally, heavy reliance on contingent workers is likely to foster the
managerial belief. Contingent employees may be viewed by managers as
especially self-interested because of their temporary status within the
organization (Rousseau & Park, 1993).

Organizational Structures, Policies, and Practices

When the unspoken yet dominant ideology within an organization is
that (1) employees are self-interested, (2) management knows best, and
(3) disagreement is bad, then management will erect structures and
policies that either does not facilitate or that discourage upward
information flow. Two common structural features of organizations
dominated by these beliefs will be high centralization of decision making
and lack of formal upward feedback mechanisms.
If the dominant belief in an organization is that employees are
opportunistic and not knowledgeable about what's best for the
organization, then it is reasonable for managers not to involve them in
decision-making processes. Decentralized decision making, as well as
other participative forms of management, will be seen by managers as not
worth the time and effort they require. Excluding employees from
decision making is also a way to avoid dissent and negative feedback
Organizational Silence... 55

and, thus, will also stem from the belief that disagreement is bad and
from fear of feedback (Foegen, 1999).

The Creation of Shared Perceptions via Collective Sense Making

The term organizational climate refers to shared and enduring
perceptions of psychologically important aspects of a particular work
environment. Researcher have emphasized that work setting have
numerous climates, each pertaining to a particular type of activity. A
climate of silence as one is characterized by two shared beliefs: (1)
speaking up about problems in the organization is not worth the effort,
and (2) voicing one's opinion and concerns is dangerous.
Schneider and Reichers (1983) proposed an interactions perspective.
In this perspective it is argued that climate originates from a process of
collective sense making, whereby employees together try to derive
meaning about their workplace. Through social interaction that
employees share their perceptions and experiences and derive a common
understanding of the meaning of various aspects of their work context.
Because individuals have a strong need to evaluate their beliefs and
perceptions, they compare them with those of others. Through this
process people "triangulate on a single set of perceptions and meanings".
This perspective is similar to the notion that reality within organization is
socially constructed. Thus a climate of silence is rooted not only in
objective features of the workplace but also in social interactions that
contribute to a subjective process of sense making. A process of
collective sense making moderates the relationship between
organizational structures and managerial practices on the one hand and
climate on the other. Hence, to understand how a climate of silence
develops within an organization, it is necessary to understand this sense
making process and the factor that makes it more likely to occur.
Social network research has indicated that the following variables
facilitate contact and communication and hence, increase the likelihood
of a strong climate of silence developing.
Similarity, stability, workflow interdependence, and informal social
networks are dense and composed of strong ties.

Demographic Dissimilarity
Demographic dissimilarity between top managers and lower-level
employees was a factor that we hypothesized would increase the
likelihood of management holding beliefs that contribute to silence. This
variable is also likely to contribute more directly to a climate of silence
by affecting the perceptions and beliefs of lower-level employees.
56

Conclusion
A new role for health care leaders and managers is envisioned. It is
one that places a high value on understanding system complexity and does
not take comfort in organizational silence or in simple explanations. It
focuses on the interdependencies and not just the components. It values
dissent and multiple perspectives as signs of organizational health, and
questions agreement, consensus and unity when they are too readily
achieved. It is a role that is sensitive to the hidden pitfalls of the
availability heuristic, self-serving bias, and the status quo. It understands
the impact of social factors on group behavior and the potentially harmful
consequences of conformity, diffusion of responsibility, and microclimates
of distrust. It does not allow prevailing beliefs to go unchallenged, it thinks
differently about what it means to be a good provider, and it is mindful of
the frequently neglected interdependencies of care. In this new role, leaders
recognize that superb technical knowledge and dedication of front-line
providers is no match for the toll that flawed and poorly performing
interdependent systems of care can take. In brief, leaders must demonstrate
a willingness to understand the complexity of the socio technical systems
of which they are a part and be prepared to break the silence. The silence
of organization cases low satisfaction , turnover and is harmful both to
employees and organization .It suggested that the communication is the
key to an organizations success , participative management , proposed
system and eventually prepare a safe and secure climate to receive the
employees idea and suggestions.
Organizational Silence... 57

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