Employee voice and silence in organizational behavior

Abstract

This chapter examines how employee voice and silence, and closely related concepts, have been studied in the field of organizational behavior. The authors first provide a brief history of this scholarship, which they organize according to voice-focused and silence-focused concepts. Within this framework, they overview research specifically focused on employee voice and on employee silence. In addition, they examine closely related concepts (for example, whistleblowing, spirals of silence, complaining) and factors that have been shown to influence voice and silence (for example, psychological safety, silence motives, group voice climate). Next, the authors address some noteworthy unresolved issues such as the implications of distinguishing between voice and silence, and not treating them as mere opposite ends of a voice–silence continuum. Lastly, they discuss several more contemporary related issues such as the implications of social media, and the potential for positive social impact.

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