International differences in employee silence motives: Scale validation, prevalence, and relationships with culture characteristics across 33 countries

Employee silence, the withholding of work-related ideas, questions, or concerns from someone who could effect change, has been proposed to hamper individual and collective learning as well as the detection of errors and unethical behaviors in many areas of the world. To facilitate cross-cultural res...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of organizational behavior 2021-06, Vol.42 (5), p.619-648
Main Authors: Knoll, Michael, Götz, Martin, Adriasola, Elisa, Al‐Atwi, Amer Ali, Arenas, Alicia, Atitsogbe, Kokou A, Barrett, Stephen, Bhattacharjee, Anindo, Blanco, Norman D, Bogilović, Sabina, Bollmann, Grégoire, Bosak, Janine, Bulut, Cagri, Carter, Madeline, Černe, Matej, Chui, Susanna L. M, Di Marco, Donatella, Duden, Gesa S, Elsey, Vicki, Fujimura, Makoto, Gatti, Paola, Ghislieri, Chiara, Giessner, Steffen R, Hino, Kenta, Hofmans, Joeri, Jønsson, Thomas S, Kazimna, Pazambadi, Lowe, Kevin B, Malagón, Juliana, Mohebbi, Hassan, Montgomery, Anthony, Monzani, Lucas, Pieterse, Anne Nederveen, Ngoma, Muhammed, Ozeren, Emir, O'Shea, Deirdre, Ottsen, Christina Lundsgaard, Pickett, Jennifer, Rangkuti, Anna A, Retowski, Sylwiusz, Ardabili, Farzad Sattari, Shaukat, Razia, Silva, Silvia A, Šimunić, Ana, Steffens, Niklas K, Sultanova, Faniya, Szücs, Daria, Tavares, Susana M, Tipandjan, Arun, van Dick, Rolf, Vasiljevic, Dimitri, Wong, Sut I, Zacher, Hannes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Avoidance behavior
Beliefs, opinions and attitudes
Collectivism
context
cross‐cultural research
Cultural differences
Cultural stereotypes
Culture
employee silence
Employees
Ethics
International aspects
Measurement
Organizational behavior
Organizational change
Power
Prosocial behavior
Quantitative psychology
Self interest
Silence
Social aspects
Uncertainty
Validity
voice
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Employee silence, the withholding of work-related ideas, questions, or concerns from someone who could effect change, has been proposed to hamper individual and collective learning as well as the detection of errors and unethical behaviors in many areas of the world. To facilitate cross-cultural research, we validated an instrument measuring four employee silence motives (i.e., silence based on fear, resignation, prosocial, and selfish motives) in 21 languages. Across 33 countries (N = 8,222) representing diverse cultural clusters, the instrument shows good psychometric properties (i.e., internal reliabilities, factor structure, and measurement invariance). Results further revealed similarities and differences in the prevalence of silence motives between countries, but did not necessarily support cultural stereotypes. To explore the role of culture for silence, we examined relationships of silence motives with the societal practices cultural dimensions from the GLOBE Program. We found relationships between silence motives and power distance, institutional collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance. Overall, the findings suggest that relationships between silence and cultural dimensions are more complex than commonly assumed. We discuss the explanatory power of nations as (cultural) units of analysis, our social scientific approach, the predictive value of cultural dimensions, and opportunities to extend silence research geographically, methodologically, and conceptually.
ISSN:1099-1379
0894-3796
1099-1379
DOI:10.1002/job.2512