Employee silence in an organizational context: A review and research agenda

Abstract

This paper conducts a systematic literature review of 92 studies that examines employee silence in an organizational context, published during the last two decades. We investigate the theories used, industries covered, methods applied, and report on the specific antecedents, mediators, moderators, and outcome variables used in silence studies. It reveals that there is a significant gap in the literature on female and “all-gender” silence studies. We find that silence studies focus on positive or negative impacts of silence, or gender aspects, and these studies are mostly conducted in the education, services, and healthcare context. Popular theoretical perspectives include social exchange theory, conservation of resources theory, and the spiral of silence theory. Two thirds of the studies reviewed used quantitative methods, whilst one third used qualitative methods. We propose a future research agenda suggesting empirical and theoretical extensions of the research literature using mixed-method approaches, which includes studying women's and employee silence during major workplace changes, in innovative firms and in a cross-cultural context. This review builds on previous work in the area and suggests a comprehensive road map to summarize the employee silence research and add new streams of research that further investigates the concept of employee silence at an organizational context.