Leader Machiavellianism and follower silence

Abstract

Purpose -Drawing on the social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between leader Machiavellianism and employee's quiescent silence. Specifically, the authors take a relational approach by introducing employee's relational identification as the mediator. The moderating role of psychological distance in the relationship between leader Machiavellianism and quiescent silence is also considered. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected from nine universities in Turkey. The sample included 793 randomly chosen faculty members along with their department chairs. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the proposed model. Findings -The results of this study supported the positive effect of leader Machiavellianism on employee's quiescent silence as well as the mediating effect of employee's relational identification. Moreover, when the level of psychological distance is low, the relationship between leader Machiavellianism and quiescent silence is strong, whereas the effect is weak when the level of psychological distance is high. Practical implications -The findings of this study suggest that educational administrators in the higher education should be sensitive in treating their subordinates, as it will lead to positive interpersonal relationship, which, in turn, will reduce workplace silence. Moreover, they should pay more attention to the buffering role of psychological distance for those subordinates with high distrust and showing silence. Originality/value -This study contributes to the literature on organizational silence by revealing the relational mechanism between leader Machiavellianism and employee quiescent silence. The paper also offers a practical assistance to employees in the higher education and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing leader-employee relationship and reducing workplace silence.

Hear Me Out! This Is My Idea: Transformational Leadership, Proactive Personality and Relational Identification

“…The attraction or desire of the connection determines how much followers will identify with the leader. The higher the level of identification with the leader, the more positive employees' evaluations of the connection with the leader are (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2019). Leaders are known to shape their followers' identities in order to influence their behavior (Lord & Hall, 2005).…”

Leaving in Mascot of Silence: Organizational Determinants of Employee Turnover Intentions in Mediating and Moderating Roles of Quiescent Silence and Coworker Support in a Russian Context

“…More recently, quiescent silence is proposed to be an outcome of leader Machiavellianism (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2019). All these studies posit quiescent silence is a recip rocal arrangement between perceived unfairness at work and employee silence.…”

“…This does not entail a justification of abuse at work, but the idea originates from the relationship between subordinates and their supervisors. This relational identification is scantly examined (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2019). One employee perceives it as abuse while another person might consider it as an opportunity to boost performance.…”

Effect of Despotic Leadership on the Employee Work Withdrawal Behavior and Acquiescent Silence

“…Similarly, when employees are working under despotic leaders, they are inclined to safeguard their employment by utilizing other means for instance using the quality of work-life as a shield to outlive the dark behavior of the Leader (Fan et al, 2020;Penney et al, 2011). Silence is another defensive strategy utilized by an employee to protect their jobs and psychological well-being while working under an abusive leader (Erkutlu & Chafra, 2019b).…”

“…Therefore the despotic behaviors of the leaders tend to disengage employees from work (Manafzadeh et al, 2018). Due to this employees intentionally choose to stay silent and hide valuable information and ideas that could have a major impact on the business (Adeel & Muhammad, 2017;Erkutlu & Chafra, 2019b;Martins & Schilpzand, 2001;Martono et al, 2020). Thus, in this study, a hypothesis was proposed to measure the effect of despotic leadership on acquiescent silence H2: Despotic leadership increases Acquiescent silence.…”