Organizational Silence

1
Organizational Silence

• Employees know the truth about certain issues and
  problems facing the organization yet they do not
  dare to speak the truth to their superiors.
• Industry Week study found that only 29 of
  first-level supervisors thought that their
  organization encouraged employees to express
  opinions openly.
• Pluralistic organizations ones that value and
  allow for the expression of multiple perspectives
  and opinions.

2

• Implications of Silence (see figure 1)
• Effect on learning and development
• Blocking of negative feedback, information that
  suggests that current practices are not working
• Errors tend to persist and magnify
• Top management does not recognize lack of
  important information and may interpret silence
  as signaling consensus and success.
• Even if directly asked, employees may be careful
  to filter out negative information.

3
Origins of Silence

• Top managers fear of receiving negative feedback
• Ignore the message
• Dismiss it as inaccurate
• Attack the credibility of the source
• When negative feedback comes from below rather
  than from above it is seen as less accurate and
  legitimate and as more threatening to ones power
  and credibility.

4
Origins of silence

• Set of unstated beliefs that managers hold about
  employees and about the nature of management
• Employees are self-interested and untrustworthy
  (transaction economics)
• Top management, not employees, always knows best
  about issues of organizational importance.
• Unity, agreement, and consensus are signs of
  organizational health, while disagreement and
  dissent should be avoided.

5
The self-fulfilling prophecy

• If managers believe that employees are
  self-interested and untrustworthy, they are
  likely to act in ways that discourage upward
  communication.
• Well meaning employees, who feel shut out of the
  decision making process and unable to express
  their views, may respond by becoming less
  committed to the organization and less trusting.
  Managers pessimistic beliefs thereby become
  reality.

6
Incubating silence

• Stable top management team
• Dissimilarity of the demographic profile of the
  TMT in comparison to employees
• Cultural background of the TMT (belief in respect
  for authority and hierarchy)
• Tall or hierarchical organizational structures
• Strategic emphasis on control low-cost
  strategies or highly competitive environments.

7
Breaking the silence

• Managers must work hard to counteract the natural
  human tendency to avoid negative feedback.
• Dont shoot the messenger
• Build an open and trusting climate
• Bring in new top managers that have proven
  records of operating in the open
• Reward employees that come forward with sensitive
  or risky information (courageous followers).
• Create formal mechanisms in which employees can
  speak up anonymously if they wish to.