Dear Dileep,

As we know, sometimes silence is golden!  We have to ask ourselves, by being silent, are we adding value!  In the name of compliance and or culture---remaining mute sometimes robs organizations of creativity and excellence!  In some other cases, silence can kill---huge financial (and image!) impact on organization!

Case in point: Earlier this year (Levine, 2014) here in America, there was a legal penalty of 35 million U.S. dollars imposed on automaker General Motors by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for failing to report safety problems with defective ignition switches in its several small cars, as of June 2014.

In addition, please take a look a this recent research study (Verhezen, 2010). The author argues that attempting to overcome moral silence in organizations will require management to move beyond a compliance-oriented organizational culture toward a culture based on integrity. Such cultural change is part of good corporate governance that aims to steer an organization to enhance creativity and moral excellence, and thus organizational value. 

The author goes on to explain that the governance mechanisms can be either formal or informal. Formal codes and other internal formal regulations that emphasize compliance are necessary, although informal mechanisms that are based on relationship-building are more likely to achieve moral excellence. Such a shift can be viewed as a transformative strategy for overcoming the destructive side effects and business risks of the tendency within corporate cultures to remain mute when faced with issues that violate personal or corporate values.

The author further highlights that genuine dialogues and appropriate ethical decision-making training can deepen the understanding and create a mindful awareness (of ethical values) and induce trust that embrace both complying with rules and regulations, as well as inciting creative 'ethical innovation' with respect to human interaction in multinational companies!

• Verhezen, P. (2010). Giving Voice in a Culture of Silence. From a Culture of Compliance to a Culture of Integrity. Journal Of Business Ethics, 96(2), 187-206.
• Levine, S. R. (2014). Silence Can Kill: Face Culture Problems Head-On. Credit Union Times, 25(22), 5.

Hope this helps!

Nadeem

Good review Mohammad. The recent literature about which characteristics are needed today to attract talent to foster innovation in organizations especially SMEs, one salient trait is "defying the status quo" for the sake of improvement.

Is it the structure or design, power and authority relationship or lack of learning organisation culture, what contribute to this effect? Which are the  factors leading an employee to be silent, even when he/she has the ability to respond? Is it part of a blind loyalty to the leader? Or is it a survival tactics and protect the occupation? Is it same with competent and less competent employees? Is it same with different gender and age groups? How would be the behavior varies with with the silent culture in relation to competent and incompetent and other socio- demographic factors linked to employees? How it affect the progress of institutional progress and operations?

The silence of staff means that management are being protected from the real feelings of employees and may not gauge the mood or culture of the organisation adequately. This can have significant impact on organisational well-being.

Hello Dileep,

You are rising a very good question! As with many other hot topics, there is some debate going on about the role of organizational silence. However, most of the research that I have seen in this topic sees silence as more negative rather than positive organizational behavior. Thus, this may complement some of the previous answers here. 

One of the first papers in the topic of organizational silence was a conceptual piece by Morrison and Milliken (2000). The authors developed a model outlining the characteristics of the organization that lead to a collective "culture" of withholding information.

On 2003 the journal of management studies (JMS) published an special issue on employee silence. I think they publish about 7 papers and most of them where conceptual ones. I strongly suggest you to take a look at them.

More recently, I've seen a little increase on empirical papers being published in the topic of employee silence. For example, Detert and Edmondson (2011) published a four studies paper on AMJ investigating when and why speaking up in the workplace is appropriate. This papers is absolutely fantastic! I think this paper may may help you because if we understand why people do or do not speak up we can also understand the causes of why people remain silent. On a similar line of research, Brinsfield (2013) investigated what are the motivational causes of employee silence. Lastly, on the topic of leadership and power, you may want to take a look at a recent paper by Tost and colleagues (2013) . They study how negative spillovers from leaders affect team performance. In particular, they show how a leader's dominant position affects the team's communication dynamics.

I hope you find this comment helpful. If you need further help with the topics of organizational silence or voice, do not hesitate to ask again (or directly send my a PM).

Good luck with your research!

Cheers,

Felipe

References

Brinsfield, C. T. (2013). Employee silence motives: investigation of dimensionality and development of measures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(5), 671-697.

Detert, J. R., & Edmondson, A. C. (2011). Implicit voice theories: Taken-for-granted rules of self-censorship at work. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 461-488.

Milliken, F. J., Morrison, E. W., & Hewlin, P. F. (2003). An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don’t Communicate Upward and Why*. Journal of management studies, 40(6), 1453-1476.

Tost, L., Gino, F., & Larrick, R. (2012). When power makes others speechless: The negative impact of leader power on team performance. Academy of Management Journal, amj-2011.

I Congratulate Felipe for his exact collaboration on the topic, what Dileep is asking in his last upload are crucial questions whose horizon is governed by culture of the organization and consequently the style of leadership practiced. Here, one must focus on certain dimensions and conduct appropriate research to delve and contain a whole picture (whenever possible) of the situation, which is a long term exercise.

I got a reply that: 

"i guess the older generation keep silent as they are loyal while the lesser competent are silent as they know they incompetency will show up if they open their silence. The rest just mark their silence but wait for the right moment to strike back - (Research scholar)

Is it true?

Let me hear your opinion.

There are also "exit" and "voice"...

I think, Dileep, that you cannot take these statements as universal, too many factors govern the situation. Care should be practiced when analyzing cases.

People dare to exit and voice...if so what demography will be attached with these people. Competent and confident people who easily get employment outside ? Competent but lack of confidence tin getting employment outside? Competent and assertive people? Or competent but submissive people? Young age with the pulse of rebellious character? Old age with confidence on their experience to get employment outside? Competent and confident male employees or incompetent by confident male employees? Is there any gender variation? Truly these variations need to be explored into.

In my opinion, there are organizations, where the culture is just to deliver orders and instructions  through circulars and notices or even through departmental meetings rather than seeking any opinion or suggestions from their employees. Employees involvement in decision making process is seen in declining stage. This may be one of the factor of employee silence. Only listen culture no say. 

Thanks. 

I agree "silence is Golden"; provided people follow & take/ adapt to "Listening" & reach the fifth or sixth level of leadership thru "Listening".

I am very much agreed to Nadeem and Felipe.

In organizational cultural system, silence of an employee indicates mere acceptance and not his or her commitment. The factors that influence organization culture are : Value system, Decision making pattern and Behavioral patten in the organization. In transactional management, the compliance is commanded through authority - responsibility relationship, while in transformational management, commitment is automatically derived. Silence generally has negative connotation and is indicative of choking of expression and thus will affect adversely the organization culture. 

I agree with the previous answers, but some times. Silence is indicator for stress, hate, unwilling to the organization.

Thus, leaders should know how to deal and to explore such issue.

Individual silence at work place can be considered from two perspectives. First it could be taken in a positive way wherein the culture made an employee silent by recognising his worth and accomplishments to equip him future accomplishments. Secondly, it may also be used in punitive way wherein the culture compel the employee to remain silent and does not attract any punishment and not to talk of recognition. This type of culture may lead to ‘burn-out’ stage in the employee which may have very devastating organisational impact.

Management practices can damage the mental health of a company's employees.

  The damaging effects of abusive, hostile, arrogant and narcissistic bosses; of manipulative or deceitful leadership behavior creates unhealthy management and leadership style harming employees, and their work performance. It drains away high-performing, energized, engaged employees, including the innovative teamwork companies need to stay nimble and competitive

Good points BK and Krishnan. Unfortunately, in our organizational cultures many owners, presidents, leaders prefer what Krishnan described.

The key to life is often what is NOT said, and why. Enforced and coerced silence should worry every one of us on every level of existence. Listening for silence is an important skill.

Evidence of silence against both Employees and Management can be "consequences" in the absence of an effective voice.

Industrial Example - In an IR situation the High handedness of Management can suppress Unionized employees to resonate silence and abstinence.

Thank you Krishnan Sir for your insight to the topic.

AS A PROFESSIONAL DEALING WITH PEOPLES IN CORPORATE DAY IN DAY OUT, I FEEL, IF THE CULTURE MAKES AN EMPLOYEE SILENT, OBVIOUSLY, THE IMPACT TO THE ORGANIZATION WILL BE LOOSING THE EMPLOYEE'S CONTRIBUTION FOR IMPROVEMENT. EMPLOYEE TEND TO PULL HIMSELF INSIDE TO HIS SHELL AND WILL WORK ON WHAT IS BEST ACCORDING TO THE SITUATION. SOME WILL TRY TO LEAVE THE ORGANIZATION TOO. IN ANY CASE, THE CULTURE NEED TO BE LOOKED INTO FOR POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM EMPLOYEES. PERSONALLY, I HAVE WORKED WITH BOSSES, WHO COME TO MEETINGS WITH DECIDED IDEAS AND JUST INSERT THEIR IDEAS INTO EMPLOYEES MINDS. SHORT TERM, THERE ARE BENEFITS TO THE BOSSES, BUT IN THE LONG TERM, THE ORGANIZATION LOOSES. (MY HUMBLE INPUTS PROF.)

Dileep, I tend to wonder why culture has been used as a tool by both individuals and corporate bodies to silence potentially dissenting voices from being heard by other employees and the wider citizenry. The recent use of non-disclosure agreements (or NDAs) by usually powerful and rich corporations and individuals as a weapon to keep people that they might have fallen out with quiet has triggered an interesting discussion and debate about the darker side of culture. Although some people may remain quiet within the public domain their utterances in other circles may highlight the other aspect about silence (i.e. a not so quiet aspect that other people may wish to hear about and learn lessons from). Interesting topic of discussion here...