Conceptual model of factors affecting organizational silence

Authors

  • Javid Rakshani Islamic Azad University, Department of Public Administration https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-5698
  • Seyed Mehdi Hosseini Islamic Azad University, Department of Public Administration

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23925/2179-3565.2025v16i1p152-162

Keywords:

Organizational Silence, Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence, Prosocial Silence, Employee Voice, Decreasing Silence

Abstract

Employee silence is widespread in modern organizations and has become a critical issue for organization management. Employee silence refers to the deliberate concealment of information, opinions, suggestions, or concerns related to potentially important organizational issues and brings unfortunate consequences to the organization. The aim of the current research is to design and develop a model that can provide appropriate measures to reduce it depending on the type of organizational silence. The purpose of this study is the factors affecting organizational silence and identifying the factors that affect organizational silence. Organizational silence is divided into three types: acquiescent silence, defensive silence, and prosocial silence. The reasons for creating these three types of organizational silence and its consequences show that these reasons can be divided into three groups: individual factors, organizational factors, and communication factors. The results of this research can help managers to adopt different methods to increase the voice of employees, depending on the type of organizational silence.

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Published

2025-03-31