Should I say something? A framework for understanding silence from a line manager’s perspective during an economic crisis

Abstract

The impact of the recent economic crisis on firms’ key employment priorities has been widely discussed in the literature. Although research has focused on how employee silence is manifested in times of economic crisis, less is known about how line managers experience voice and silence from their own perspective and organizational position. Line managers are an intriguing group to study because they act as both supervisors to their teams and as supervisees (employees) to senior managers/business owners. This article draws on qualitative data gathered from line managers in 35 small non-unionized enterprises in Greece in two periods of time (2012 and 2014) during the economic crisis. The authors develop a framework for understanding line managers’ experience of silence in such contexts and, within this framework, propose ‘cynical silence’ as a new type of silence relevant to an economic crisis context.