An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues That Employees Don't Communicate Upward and Why

Milliken et al · Voice & Silence, Power & Equity · Journal of Management Studies · 2003 · Paywalled

Qualitative follow-up to Morrison & Milliken (2000), this time from the employee perspective. Interviewed 40 employees about what they chose not to raise with managers and why. Found that the most common topics withheld were concerns about management behaviour and organisational direction — precisely the high-stakes, high-value information PS is meant to unlock. Fear of being labelled negatively and damaging the relationship were the dominant reasons for silence. The paper gives the employee-side account that the 2000 organisational-level paper lacked, and the two together form the empirical foundation for the silence literature.

Milliken, F.J., Morrison, E.W. and Hewlin, P.F. (2003) 'An exploratory study of employee silence: Issues that employees don't communicate upward and why', Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), pp. 1453–1476.

Neighbours (14)

• Calculus of Voice
• Employee Silence: Quiescence and Acquiescence as Responses to Perceived Injustice (paper)
• Inclusion and Diversity in Work Groups: A Review and Model for Future Research (paper)
• Leadership Behavior and Employee Voice: Is the Door Really Open? (paper)
• Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World (paper)
• Speaking Up to Prevent Harm: A Systematic Review of the Safety Voice Literature (paper)
• The Social Consequences of Voice: An Examination of Voice Type and Gender on Status and Subsequent Leader Emergence (paper)
• Implicit Voice Theories: Taken-for-Granted Rules of Self-Censorship at Work (paper)
• Silence in Organizations and Psychological Safety: A Literature Review (paper)
• Barriers to PS
• Building PS Upwards
• Enviable Support: How and When Advantageous Voice Endorsement Fosters Employee Silence (paper)
• Open Secrets & Half-Baked Ideas
• Types of Silence