Title
Employee silence motives: Investigation of dimensionality and development of measures
Department/School
Management
Date of this version
2013
Document Type
Article
Keywords
Employee silence, voice
Abstract
In four studies, I examine the motives for employee silence. In Study 1, I examine open-ended survey responses to determine the nature and scope of silence motives. Study 2 develops measures of these motives and explores their factor structure. Study 3 refines the measures and provides confirmatory evidence of factor structure. Study 4 examines relationships between the new measures and related factors (employee voice, psychological safety, neuroticism, extraversion). Results indicate that six dimensions of silence motives (ineffectual, relational, defensive, diffident, disengaged, and deviant) emerged from the data, which can be reliably measured and provide incremental value for understanding and assessing employee silence.
Published in
Journal of Organizational Behavior