How strategic silence enables employee voice to be valued and rewarded

IF 3.4 2区管理学 Q2 MANAGEMENT

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Pub Date : 2022-11-01 DOI:10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104187

Michael R. Parke , Subrahmaniam Tangirala , Apurva Sanaria , Srinivas Ekkirala

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

We challenge the predominant viewpoint in the literature that employee silence is inherently harmful. We theorize that employees can engage in strategic silence, or the intentional withholding of untimely ideas or concerns, in order to raise issues that resonate better with managers when they do speak up. More specifically, we propose that employees’ voice is deemed higher quality by managers, and as a result, earns them higher performance evaluations and rewards, when those employees also engage in strategic silence. In a qualitative study (Study 1), we document the dimensions and real-life examples of strategic silence. In two multi-source survey-based field studies (Study 2a and Study 2b) and a pre-registered online experiment (Study 3), we demonstrate support for our theoretical model. Through our findings, we highlight that strategic silence is a functional and useful type of silence that employees use to gain more positive appraisal of their voice from managers.

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策略性沉默如何使员工的声音得到重视和奖励

我们挑战文献中的主流观点，即员工沉默本质上是有害的。我们的理论是，员工可以策略性地保持沉默，或者故意隐瞒不合时宜的想法或担忧，以便在他们说出来时提出的问题能更好地引起经理的共鸣。更具体地说，我们认为管理者认为员工的声音质量更高，因此，当这些员工也参与战略沉默时，他们可以获得更高的绩效评估和奖励。在一项定性研究(研究1)中，我们记录了策略沉默的维度和现实生活中的例子。在两个基于多源调查的实地研究(研究2a和研究2b)和一个预先注册的在线实验(研究3)中，我们证明了我们的理论模型的支持。通过我们的研究结果，我们强调战略性沉默是一种功能性和有用的沉默类型，员工使用它来获得管理者对他们声音的更积极的评价。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Multiple-

CiteScore

8.90

自引率

4.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes publishes fundamental research in organizational behavior, organizational psychology, and human cognition, judgment, and decision-making. The journal features articles that present original empirical research, theory development, meta-analysis, and methodological advancements relevant to the substantive domains served by the journal. Topics covered by the journal include perception, cognition, judgment, attitudes, emotion, well-being, motivation, choice, and performance. We are interested in articles that investigate these topics as they pertain to individuals, dyads, groups, and other social collectives. For each topic, we place a premium on articles that make fundamental and substantial contributions to understanding psychological processes relevant to human attitudes, cognitions, and behavior in organizations. In order to be considered for publication in OBHDP a manuscript has to include the following: 1.Demonstrate an interesting behavioral/psychological phenomenon 2.Make a significant theoretical and empirical contribution to the existing literature 3.Identify and test the underlying psychological mechanism for the newly discovered behavioral/psychological phenomenon 4.Have practical implications in organizational context