A Study of Organizational Silence from the Viewpoint of Female Students in Male-Dominated Classrooms

Abstract

Organizational silence behavior is one of the problems frequently experienced by women working in male-dominated workplaces. Women working in such workplaces prefer to remain silent about the problems that they face or the issues that concern the organization in general for various reasons. The aim of this study is to determine whether the same behavior is experienced by female students in male-dominated classrooms. The study was conducted with 102 students in a male-dominated university. On the evaluation of the survey, it is seen that female students showed behaviors similar to those of male students in all three sub-dimensions of organizational silence, and they were able to express the problems they experienced or observed without worrying about damaging the image of the class, being labeled as troublemakers, or being excluded from the class. It is thought that this study will have a positive contribution to the literature researching not only the relations between female and male students in the classroom but also different aspects of organizational silence. Future research may focus on investigating whether the differences in the behaviors of male and female employees in workplace or their reactions to events are also experienced by male and female students in the educational environment, comparing the behaviors of male and female students in male-dominated classrooms, and identifying differences between generations in this regard.