The allegory of the university: Employee voice, employee silence, and organizational power

Abstract

Universities – the intellectual marketplaces that give voices and ideas a space to flourish – represent the very epitome of the ideal civil society. As institutions that socialize citizens, universities shoulder the responsibility to promote critical thinking and respectful expressions of opinions in their communities. However, communicative practices within universities can also perpetuate power imbalance and dismiss meaningful opinions. Despite the importance of organizational power in organizational scholarship and the significance of universities as culture-shaping institutions, scholars have conveniently paid scant attention to communicative practices that define, distribute, and dissipate power in universities. Guided by Plato’s Theory of Forms and the Allegory of the Cave, this interpretive study reports how university staff made sense of their silenced voices and their sense of futility.