Breaking the Silence Culture: Stimulation of Participation and Employee Opinion Withholding Cross-nationally

Abstract

 We investigated the relationship between the national cultural value of power distance and collective silence as well as the role of voice-inducing mechanisms in breaking the organizational silence. Using data from 421 organizational units of a multinational company in 24 countries, we found that both formalized employee involvement and a participative climate encouraged employees to voice their opinions in countries with a small power distance culture. In large power distance cultures, formalized employee involvement is related to employee voices only under a strong perceived participative climate.Employees are regarded as major sources of change, creativity, learning, and innovation, which are factors critical to the success of organizations. However, many employees choose not to voice their opinions and concerns about matters in their organizations. Morrison and Milliken (2000) proposed that when most members of an organization choose to keep silent about organizational matters, silence becomes a collective behavior, which is referred to as organizational silence. Organizational silence can have detrimental effects on decision-making and processes of change by blocking alternative views, negative feedback, and accurate information (cf. Bies and Tripp, 1999;Zand, 1972). As many organizations are now operating in a large number of culturally diverse countries, understanding and managing organizational silence cross-nationally would be of interest to both international scholars and international managers.In his seminal work on cultural dimensions, Hofstede (1991) asserted that, compared to people from countries with a small power distance culture, those from countries with a large power distance culture tend to take hierarchical inequalities for granted and are less likely to voice their concerns to their superiors in order Management and Organization Review 1:3 459-482 1740-8776

Examining the Relationship between Leadership Styles of School Principals, Organizational Silence and Organizational Learning

“…According to the study being conducted by Bildik (2009), there is a reverse relation between the transformational leadership and organizational silence and a positive" relation between the traditional transactional leaders that pay minimum attention to the creative and innovative aspects of employees and the organizational silence. Huang et al (2005) state that transformational leaders encourage and support their followers, whereas the transactional leaders focus on short-run goals and that transformational leaders are more successful in hindering the development of the organizational silence environment. Similarly, Detert and Burris (2007) who has determined a negative relation between the transformational leadership style and silence suggest that transformational leaders encourage the employees to freely share their feelings and thoughts, increase their sense of responsibility by strengthening their commitment, and consequently enable them to make a positive contribution to the future of the institution.…”

“…This study seeks an answer to the basic problem regarding the hypothesis that the leaders directing their audience by forming a common vision with behaviors like idealized effect, motivation by inspiration, intellectual stimulation and personal support (Bass, 1990;Bass and Avolio, 1995) could maximize the organizational learning by decreasing the organizational silence (Huang, Van de Vliert and Van der Vegt, 2005). Within the context of organizational learning, examining the relationship between the leadership and organizational silence should be considered important in order to determine the strategies to be used in realizing new administrative mentalities in institutional structures.…”

The Study of Relationship between Women Teachers’ Career Barriers and Organizational Silence: Viewpoint of Women and Men Teachers

“…Another factor in silence of employees is power distance. In organizations where power distance is high, employees prefer staying silent as they cannot convey their problems to their superiors (Huang et al, 2005). Employees perceive the system as in "That's life.…”

Örgütsel Sessizlik ile Kişilik ve Yaşam Doyumu Etkileşimi: Kamu Sektöründe Bir Araştırma

“…Alternatif bakış açılarının geliştiril-mesine ket vurmakta, katılımcılığı azaltmakta, karar verme becerilerine zarar vermektedir (Huang, Van de Vliert ve Van der Vegt, 2005). Örgütsel sessizlik ayrıca bireyde gücenme ve değersizlik duygularını uyandır-maktadır (Çakıcı, 2007;Perlow ve Williams, 2003).…”