What makes academic librarians organizationally silent?

Abstract

Academic librarians’ organizational silence has a bad effect on the service provision in academic libraries. This study aimed to investigate the status of organizational silence among academic librarians and the factors that influence it as perceived by them. Using the convenience sampling method, 118 academic librarians in the academic libraries of northern Iran were selected. They completed a questionnaire called “Academic Librarians’ Organizational Silence Scale”. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistic methods. Positively affecting academic librarians’ organizational silence behavior, library managements’ attitude to silence was the strongest predictor of the librarians’ organizational silence. Negatively affecting their organizational silence behavior, the existence of communication opportunities in the library was another predictor. The consideration of organizational silence and weakening its influence among academic librarians is the motivator for their appropriate service provision. This exploratory research is the first step in the deep study of this construct in libraries and among librarians. This study has some implications for theory and practice in the Library Science field. In the former, it extends evidence in the literature aimed at library human resource management. In the latter, it informs library management of factors at work in librarians’ organizational silence. Despite its limitations as to the study sample and geographically limited scope of libraries studied, this exploratory study can motivate researchers to consider librarians’ organizational silence in different types of library.