Employee silence motives: Investigation of dimensionality and development of measures

• Published in: Journal of organizational behavior Vol. 34; no. 5; pp. 671 - 697
• Main Author: Brinsfield, Chad T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-07-2013; John Wiley & Sons; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Discriminant analysis; Employee attitude; Employee motivation; employee silence; Employee supervision; employee voice; Extraversion; Factor structures; Industrial and organizational psychology; Motivation; Motivation research; Neuroticism; Organization development; Organizational behavior; organizational silence; Personality psychology; Psychological research; Psychology; Safety; Studies; Trucks; Workplaces
• ISSN: 0894-3796; 1099-1379
• DOI: 10.1002/job.1829

In four studies, I examine the motives for employee silence. In Study 1, I examine open-ended survey responses to determine the nature and scope of silence motives. Study 2 develops measures of these motives and explores their factor structure. Study 3 refines the measures and provides confirmatory evidence of factor structure. Study 4 examines relationships between the new measures and related factors (employee voice, psychological safety, neuroticism, extraversion). Results indicate that six dimensions of silence motives (ineffectual, relational, defensive, diffident, disengaged, and deviant) emerged from the data, which can be reliably measured and provide incremental value for understanding and assessing employee silence.