Reflections: Voice and Silence in Workplace Conversations

ABSTRACT We highlight conversations at work as an arena of change. Drawing on and extending the psychological safety literature, we offer a new framework to distinguish between productive and unproductive forms of both voice and silence. The framework’s four quadrants – withholding, disrupting, contributing and processing – outline essential activities in group conversations that work to advance goals, including organization change. Drawing on the authors’ own research, as well as other relevant literatures, our framework points to new directions for actionable research and suggests managerial practices to enhance the quality of workplace conversation. Our work bridges literatures on change, workplace conversations, psychological safety and leadership. We emphasize the function of leadership in fostering high-quality conversations, with an eye on both the opportunities and challenges of diversity at work in ensuring high-quality conversations.