This research examines the effects of individual and organizational factors on four types of employee silence: acquiescent, defensive, pro-social, and adaptive. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study demonstrates that both individual- and organizational-level factors significantly influence social workers’ decisions to remain silent. As frontline workers in the service delivery chain, social workers possess critical insights into improving relevant policies. However, withholding such valuable information through silence can negatively impact organizations. To find some clues about decreasing employee silence, this study conducted a hierarchical linear model analysis with data from 1,537 frontline social workers in 359 community social service agencies in South Korea. The results indicate that, among organizational factors, larger organizational size increases acquiescent and defensive silence, whereas the presence of a formal mentoring system reduces the likelihood of acquiescent silence. Among individual factors, surface acting increases acquiescent, defensive, and pro-social silence, while autonomy and intrinsic motivation decrease acquiescent, defensive, and adaptive silence. Interestingly, pro-social silence shows distinct results, with leader tenure and intrinsic motivation contributing to its increase.
AmabileT. M.HillK. G.HennesseyB. A.TigheE. M. (1994). The work preference inventory: Assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(5), 950–967. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.950
BanduraA. (1986). The explanatory and predictive scope of self-efficacy theory. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 4(3), 359–373. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.1986.4.3.359
5.
BergerC. R.CalabreseR. J. (1975). Some explorations in initial interaction and beyond: Toward a developmental theory of interpersonal communication. Human Communication Research, 1(2), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1975.tb00258.x
6.
BlackmanD.Sadler-SmithE. (2009). The silent and the silenced in organizational knowing and learning. Management Learning, 40(5), 569–585. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609340809
7.
BogoM.McKnightK. (2005). Clinical supervision in social work: A review of the research literature. Clinical Supervisor, 24(1/2), 49–67. https://doi.org/10.1300/J001v24n01.04
8.
BournD.Hafford-LetchfieldT. (2011). The role of social work professional supervision in conditions of uncertainty. The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 10(9), 41–56.
9.
BreaughJ. A. (1999). Further investigation of the work autonomy scales: Two studies. Journal of Business and Psychology, 13(3), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022926416628
10.
BrinsfieldC. T. (2013). Employee silence motives: Investigation of dimensionality and development of measures. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(5), 671–697. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1829
11.
BrotheridgeC. M.GrandeyA. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of people work. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 17–39.
12.
BrotheridgeC. M.LeeR. T. (2003). Development and validation of the emotional labour scale. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(3), 365–379. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317903769647229
13.
CerasoliC. P.NicklinJ. M.FordM. T. (2014). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 980–1008. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035661
14.
ChoY. J.SongH. J. (2017). Determinants of turnover intention of social workers: Effects of emotional labor and organizational trust. Public Personnel Management, 46(1), 41–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026017696395
15.
CrantJ. M.KimT.-Y.WangJ. (2011). Dispositional antecedents of demonstration and usefulness of voice behavior. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(3), 285–297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9197-y
16.
DavidsonT.Van DyneL.LinB. (2017). Too attached to speak up? It depends: How supervisor–subordinate guanxi and perceived job control influence upward constructive voice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 143, 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2017.07.002
17.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press.
18.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.
19.
DetertJ. R.EdmondsonA. C. (2011). Implicit voice theories: Taken-for-granted rules of self-censorship at work. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 461–488. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2011.61967925
20.
DetertJ. R.TreviñoL. K. (2010). Speaking up to higher-ups: How supervisors and skip-level leaders influence employee voice. Organization Science, 21(1), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0405
21.
DiefendorffJ. M.CroyleM. H.GosserandR. H. (2005). The dimensionality and antecedents of emotional labor strategies. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66(2), 339–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.02.001
22.
DooE.-Y.KimM. (2020). Effects of hospital nurses’ internalized dominant values, organizational silence, horizontal violence, and organizational communication on patient safety. Research in Nursing & Health, 43(5), 499–510. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22067
23.
DrakeB.WasheckJ. (1998). A Competency-based method for providing worker feedback to CPS supervisors. Administration in Social Work, 22(3), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1300/J147v22n03_04
24.
DuY.WangZ. (2021). How does emotional labor influence voice behavior? The roles of work engagement and perceived organizational support. Sustainability, 13(19), 10524. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910524
25.
DuttonJ. E.AshfordS. J.O’NeillR. M.HayesE.WierbaE. E. (1997). Reading the wind: How middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18(5), 407–423. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3088168
26.
EdmondsonA. C. (2003). Speaking up in the operating room: How team leaders promote learning in interdisciplinary action teams. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1419–1452. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00386
GagnéM.DeciE. L. (2005). Self-determination theory and work motivation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26(4), 331–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322
29.
GambarottoF.CammozzoA. (2010). Dreams of silence: Employee voice and innovation in a public sector community of practice. Innovation, 12(2), 166–179. https://doi.org/10.5172/impp.12.2.166
30.
GoD. Y.HanM. S. (2023). Discussion on the effects of organizational silence through meta-analysis. Korean Policy Sciences Review, 27(2), 47–74. (In Korean).
31.
GoD.Y.KangJ.-S. (2017). Conceptualization and development of measurement tools for the silence phenomenon in Korean administrative culture: Focus on adaptive silence. Korean Public Administration Review, 51(4), 29–55. (In Korean)
32.
HalbeslebenJ. R. B.NeveuJ.-P.Paustian-UnderdahlS. C.WestmanM. (2014). Getting to the “COR”: Understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334–1364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527130
33.
HobfollS. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513
34.
HobfollS. E.HalbeslebenJ.NeveuJ.-P.WestmanM. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640
35.
HochschildA. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
36.
HsiehH.-H.HuangJ.-T. (2022). Why and when are silent employees less satisfied with their jobs? A conservation of resources perspective. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 37(4), 319–331. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-03-2021-0184
37.
HumphreyR. H.AshforthB. E.DiefendorffJ. M. (2015). The bright side of emotional labor. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(6), 749–769. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26611012
38.
HussainI.ShuR.TangiralaS.EkkiralaS. (2019). The voice bystander effect: How information redundancy inhibits employee voice. Academy of Management Journal, 62(3), 828–849. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.0245
39.
JablinF. M.PutnamL. L. (2001). The new handbook of organizational communication: advances in theory, research, and methods. SAGE.
KadushinA.HarknessD. (2014). Supervision in social work. Columbia University Press.
42.
KanwalF.RathoreK.QaisarA. (2019). Relationship of benevolent leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: Interactional effect of perceived organizational support and perceived organizational politics. Pakistan Journal of Commerce & Social Sciences, 13(2), 283–310.
43.
KaoK.-Y.HsuH.-H.ThomasC. L.ChengY.-C.LinM.-T.LiH.-F. (2022). Motivating employees to speak up: Linking job autonomy, P-O fit, and employee voice behaviors through work engagement. Current Psychology, 41(11), 7762–7776. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01222-0
44.
KimH.LeeS. Y. (2009). Supervisory communication, burnout, and turnover intention among social workers in health care settings. Social Work in Health Care, 48(4), 364–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981380802598499
45.
Kish-GephartJ. J.DetertJ. R.TreviñoL. K.EdmondsonA. C. (2009). Silenced by fear: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 29, 163–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2009.07.002
46.
KlaasB. S.Olson-BuchananJ. B.WardA.-K. (2012). The determinants of alternative forms of workplace voice: An integrative perspective. Journal of Management, 38(1), 314–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311423823
47.
KnollM.van DickR. (2013a). Do I hear the whistle. . .? A first attempt to measure four forms of employee silence and their correlates. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(2), 349–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1308-4
48.
KnollM.van DickR. (2013b). Authenticity, employee silence, prohibitive voice, and the moderating effect of organizational identification. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(4), 346–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.804113
49.
LamC. F.MayerD. M. (2013). When do employees speak up for their customers? A model of voice in a customer service context. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), 637–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12050
50.
LaveeE.CohenN.NoumanH. (2018). Reinforcing public responsibility? Influences and practices in street-level bureaucrats’ engagement in policy design. Public Administration, 96(2), 333–348. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12402
51.
LePineJ. A.van DyneL. (2001). Voice and cooperative behavior as contrasting forms of contextual performance: Evidence of differential relationships with Big Five personality characteristics and cognitive ability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(2), 326–336. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.2.326
52.
LipskyM. (2010). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service, 30th anniversary expanded edition. Russell Sage Foundation.
53.
LiuW.SongZ.LiX.LiaoZ. (2017). Why and when leaders’ affective states influence employee upward voice. Academy of Management Journal, 60(1), 238–263. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.1082
54.
Lotfi DehkharghaniL.PaulJ.MaharatiY.MenziesJ. (2023). Employee silence in an organizational context: A review and research agenda. European Management Journal, 41(6), 1072–1085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.12.004
55.
MalcolmP. (2006). What is professional social work?Policy Press.
56.
Maynard-MoodyS.MushenoM. (2000). State agent or citizen agent: Two narratives of discretion. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(2), 329–358. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024272
57.
MeyerJ. P.BeckerT. E.VandenbergheC. (2004). Employee commitment and motivation: A conceptual analysis and integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(6), 991–1007. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.6.991
58.
MillikenF. J.MorrisonE. W.HewlinP. F. (2003). An exploratory study of employee silence: Issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1453–1476. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00387
59.
Mor BarakM. E.NisslyJ. A.LevinA. (2001). Antecedents to retention and turnover among child welfare, social work, and other human service employees: What can we learn from past research? A review and metanalysis. Social Service Review, 75(4), 625–661. https://doi.org/10.1086/323166
60.
Mor BarakM. E.TravisD. J.PyunH.XieB. (2009). The impact of supervision on worker outcomes: a meta-analysis. Social Service Review, 83(1), 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/599028
61.
MorrisonE. W. (2011). Employee voice behavior: Integration and directions for future research. Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 373–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2011.574506
MorrisonE. W. (2023). Employee voice and silence: Taking stock a decade later. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 79–107. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-054654
64.
MorrisonE. W.MillikenF. J. (2000). Organizational silence: A barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 706–725. https://doi.org/10.2307/259200
65.
MorrisonE. W.MillikenF. J. (2003). Speaking Up, Remaining Silent: The Dynamics of Voice and Silence in Organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 40, 1353–1358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00383
66.
MorrisonE. W.RothmanN. B. (2009). Silence and the dynamics of power. In GreenbergJ.EdwardsM. S., (Eds.), Voice and silence in organizations (pp. 111–134). Emerald Group publishing.
67.
NausF.van ItersonA.RoeR. (2007). Organizational cynicism: Extending the exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect model of employees’ responses to adverse conditions in the workplace. Human Relations, 60(5), 683–718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726707079198
68.
NikolaouI.VakolaM.BourantasD. (2008). Who speaks up at work? Dispositional influences on employees’ voice behavior. Personnel Review, 37(6), 666–679. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810906892
69.
PinderC. C.HarlosK. P. (2001). Employee silence: Quiescence and acquiescence as responses to perceived injustice. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 20, 331–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-7301(01)20007-3
70.
RaineyH. G. (2014). Understanding and managing public organizations (5th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
71.
ReddingW. C. (1972). Communication within the organization: An interpretive review of theory and research. Industrial Communication Council.
SerenkoA.BontisN.HardieT. (2007). Organizational size and knowledge flow: A proposed theoretical link. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 8(4), 610–627. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930710830783
74.
TakeuchiR.ChenZ.CheungS. Y. (2012). Applying uncertainty management theory to employee voice behavior: An integrative investigation. Personnel Psychology, 65(2), 283–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2012.01247.x
75.
TangiralaS.KamdarD.VenkataramaniV.ParkeM. R. (2013). Doing right versus getting ahead: The effects of duty and achievement orientations on employees’ voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(6), 1040–1050. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033855
76.
TangiralaS.RamanujamR. (2008). Employee silence on critical work issues: The cross level effects of procedural justice climate. Personnel Psychology, 61(1), 37–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1744-6570.2008.00105.X
77.
VakolaM.BouradasD. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of organizational silence: An empirical investigation. Employee Relations, 27(5), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450510611997
78.
VallièresF.HylandP.McAuliffeE.MahmudI.TullochO.WalkerP.TaegtmeyerM. (2018). A new tool to measure approaches to supervision from the perspective of community health workers: A prospective, longitudinal, validation study in seven countries. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3595-7
79.
Van den BroeckA.LensW.De WitteH.Van CoillieH. (2013). Unraveling the importance of the quantity and the quality of workers’ motivation for well-being: A person-centered perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.11.005
80.
Van DyneL.AngS.BoteroI. C. (2003). Conceptualizing employee silence and employee voice as multidimensional constructs. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1359–1392. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00384
81.
WangY. D.HsiehH. H. (2013). Organizational ethical climate, perceived organizational support, and employee silence: A cross-level investigation. Human Relations, 66(6), 783–802. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712460706
82.
WarrP.CookJ.WallT. (1979). Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of psychological well-being. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 52(2), 129–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00448.x
83.
ZhangX.BartolK. M. (2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.48037118
84.
ZhangY.HuaiM.-y.XieY.-h. (2015). Paternalistic leadership and employee voice in China: A dual process model. Asian models of leadership [special issue], The Leadership Quarterly, 26(1), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.01.002.
