Abstract
Despite burgeoning interest in employee silence, there are still significant gaps in our understanding of (a) the antecedents of employee silence in organizations and (b) the implications of engaging in silence for employees. Using two experimental studies (Study 1a, N = 91; Study 1b, N = 152) and a field survey of full-time working adults (Study 2, N = 308), we examined overall justice as an antecedent of acquiescent (i.e., silence motivated by futility) and quiescent silence (i.e., silence motivated by fear of sanctions). Across the studies, results indicated that overall justice is a significant predictor of both types of silence in organizations. Furthermore, Study 2 indicated that the implications of silence extend beyond the restriction of information flow in organizations to include employee outcomes. Specifically, acquiescent silence partially or fully mediated the relationship between overall justice perceptions and emotional exhaustion, psychological withdrawal, physical withdrawal, and performance. Quiescent silence partially mediated these relationships, with the exception of performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for both the justice and silence literatures are discussed.
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Notes
An exception is Tangirala and Ramanujam’s (2008) study which found that general silence behavior was predicted by the interaction between employees’ procedural justice perceptions and group-level procedural justice climate.
Overall justice has been assessed using the individual justice dimensions to create a latent overall justice factor (i.e., variance accounted for approach; e.g., Barclay and Kiefer 2012) and by directly assessing overall justice (e.g., Ambrose and Schminke 2009). Furthermore, overall justice can reflect an event- or entity-based approach (e.g., Ambrose and Schminke 2009; Lind 2001a).
This time frame was chosen to ensure that participants were able to report entity-based judgments (i.e., they had sufficient time to develop evaluations that reflected their fairness judgments across time and situations).
We also conducted these analyses using transformations to enhance the normality of our outcome variables (cf. Cohen et al. 2003). Although the R 2 values increased, all of our general results remained the same. We present our results without these transformations to minimize problems that can arise when data transformation is used, including introducing complexities into the data and creating interpretation issues (cf. Cohen et al. 2003; Draper and Smith 1998).
We also tested the interactive effects of acquiescent and quiescent silence in predicting our outcome variables. None of the interactions approached significance. In the interests of parsimony, we focus on the main effects.
Given that previous research has shown that gender can be related to silence (e.g., Harlos 2010), we controlled for gender in our analyses. However, we also conducted post hoc analyses to explore whether gender interacted with acquiescent or quiescent silence in Study 2, but the results were not significant. Future research should continue to explore gender as a potential moderator.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Study 1a Scenario—[High/Low Overall Justice]
You have been working at your co-op placement for about 2 months. During this time, you have made quite a few observations about how things are run at the organization and by your supervisor. With respect to the organization, you have found that employees [usually/seldom] have the ability to express their views and feelings when decisions are being made using organizational procedures. Employees are [also/also not] given the opportunity to influence the outcomes arrived at by those procedures. The organization [is careful to ensure/seems careless at ensuring] that decisions are based on accurate information and the procedures always include ways that decisions can be appealed if employees are dissatisfied or feel that something was overlooked. The organization [has never been/has been] known to play favorites among employees and your coworkers agree that the organization’s procedures have been [ethical/unethical].
During your time at the organization, you have always felt [fairly/unfairly] treated by Jamie, your direct supervisor. You feel that Jamie [has always/has never] treated you with dignity and respect. When you speak to each other, Jamie acts [professionally/unprofessionally] and [never/frequently] makes inappropriate comments. Additionally, Jamie has always seemed candid in his communications with you and when you first arrived at the organization he gave you a [thorough and reasonable/inadequate and unreasonable] explanation of your new job. Jamie [always/never] seems to give you the information that you need in a timely manner and the information is always [clear and easy to understand/unclear and confusing].
During your work-term, you have noticed considerable weaknesses in the organization’s storage system. For example, there is little structure to the system and boxes are typically placed wherever there is space in the storage room. Boxes of products are sometimes placed out on the floor, but there is no system to determine which products are placed on the floor and where on the floor they are located. Just yesterday, it took you 10 min to find one product, much to the dismay of a waiting customer! You have an idea for a new storage system that could potentially remedy a number of the issues with the current system including making it easier to navigate and reducing the time it takes to find the product you need. While it would take some time and resources to officially implement this system, you believe it will lead to a number of long-term improvements. The organization will run more smoothly, and you won’t have to spend so much of your day hunting down boxes and apologizing to customers!
Now you have to make a decision: Do you approach Jamie with your idea? Or do you choose to keep your idea to yourself?
Appendix B: Study 1b Scenario—[High/Low Overall Justice]
You have held a co-op placement at a local meat processing company for about 2 months. During this time, you have noticed that the organization generally treats its employees [fairly/unfairly]. For example, you have found that employees [usually/seldom] have the ability to express their views and feelings when decisions are being made. In general, decisions are [based/not based] on accurate information and procedures [always/never] include ways that decisions can be appealed if employees are dissatisfied or feel that something was overlooked. The organization [has never/has] been known to play favorites among employees and your coworkers agree that the organization generally acts [ethically/unethically]. It also seems like employees [are/are not] rewarded in a way that reflects what they contribute on the job.
During your work-term, you have always felt like the organization has acted [professionally/unprofessionally], [treating/rarely treating] you with dignity and respect. The organization [has/has not] been committed to providing you with any information that you need in a timely manner and the information is always [clear and easy to understand/unclear and confusing].
During your work-term, you have noticed that one of your coworkers, Jamie, routinely neglects the full health and safety procedures that are required by the Government Health and Safety Board. Specifically, each shipment of meat is to undergo extensive tests for cleanliness and disease. However, Jamie often tests only a small portion of the shipment. This clearly violates the policies that must be followed before the meat is allowed to leave the processing plant. In your orientation, you were clearly told about the importance of following these health and safety procedures and how dangerous spoiled meat can be for both the organization and its customers.
You are worried that Jamie’s action might result in someone getting sick or even dying from contaminated meat. Yesterday, you spoke with Jamie about your concerns during your break together. He told you that conducting full tests are a waste of his time and that he has no intention of changing his behavior.
Now you have to make a decision: Do you approach someone who can deal with this situation and address your concerns? Or do you choose to keep your concerns to yourself?
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Whiteside, D.B., Barclay, L.J. Echoes of Silence: Employee Silence as a Mediator Between Overall Justice and Employee Outcomes. J Bus Ethics 116, 251–266 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1467-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1467-3