The effect of organisational leaders on employee voice and employee silence

Abstract

Employee silence has been identified as a contributor to a host of detrimental outcomes for an organisation. Employee voice is seen to contribute to an organisation's effectiveness, eg by making better decisions possible. Four main drivers play a role in a decision to speak up or stay silent. They play a role in speaking up both inside and outside the organisation. These drivers are attitude, capability, safety and social cues. Factors that play a role are role modelling, trust, the feeling ‘it is easy’ and ‘it must be worth it’. Organisational leaders play a critical role in improving the culture to speak up and increasing the number of employees who speak up. Getting employees to speak up is important for every company, whether to make the right decisions, take a stance on societal issues or to detect misconduct. This research reveals that more needs to be done than just provide reporting channels and communicate where to find the information. The recommendation is that companies work on all four drivers to battle employee silence in an organisation.