Voice And Silence In Organizations

Are employees encouraged to speak up or to pipe down? Do they share ideas openly or do they remain silent in ways that are hurtful to individuals and harmful to the functioning of their organizations? This collection of 12 essays addresses these and related issues from a variety of scholarly perspectives.

Among the most fundamental decisions made in the workplace includes whether or not to express their ideas and concernsor even if it is possible to do so. Voice and Silence in Organizations is poised to become a classic as the first book of its kind on this topic, Presenting a collection of 14 original essays that address this question from a wide variety of scholarly perspectives with chapters by highly regarded psychologists, sociologists and management scholars from around the world offer new conceptual insights and empirical findings that promise to become valuable contributions to this burgeoning area.The text is organized into five major sections and covers; basic concepts (including an overview of voice and silence in organizations); psychological processes involved with voice and silence (including the attributional processes that give them meaning and their roles as defense mechanisms); antecedents and consequences of voice and silence in organizations; counterproductive ways in which silence is used (such as a means of aggression and social ostracism) The monograph concludes with an analysis of what the contributions as a whole reveal about this field and the challenges it faces for the future.

Employees in organizations face countless daily situations in which they make a choice to speak up, exercise voice, or remain silent. Too many choose to remain silent. Others only tell supervisors what they want to hear, becoming Šyes� men and women. E

Managing Silence in Workplaces explores employee voice and the issues inherent for organizations in not allowing their employees to freely express their feelings and thoughts in the workplace. The study promotes a transdisciplinary approach combining perspectives on employee silence from human resources management, psychology and economics.

This thoroughly revised second edition presents up-to-date analysis from various academic streams and disciplines that illuminate our understanding of employee voice from a range of different perspectives. Exploring the previously under-represented paradigm of the organizational behaviour approach, new chapters take account of a broader conceptualization of employee voice. Written by expert contributors, this Handbook explores the meaning and impact of employee voice for various stakeholders and considers the ways in which these actors engage with voice processes such as collective bargaining, individual processes, mutual gains, task-based voice and grievance procedures

An innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, “exit,” is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, “voice,” is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change “from within.” The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questioned for certain important situations. As exit often undercuts voice while being unable to counteract decline, loyalty is seen in the function of retarding exit and of permitting voice to play its proper role. The interplay of the three concepts turns out to illuminate a wide range of economic, social, and political phenomena. As the author states in the preface, “having found my own unifying way of looking at issues as diverse as competition and the two-party system, divorce and the American character, black power and the failure of ‘unhappy’ top officials to resign over Vietnam, I decided to let myself go a little.”

Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent—but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of “fitting in” and “going along” spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing. This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation. Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance Create a culture where it’s “safe” to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today’s knowledge economy Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization Shed the “yes-men” approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.

This book gives 'voice' to some of the notable 'silences' in the study of contentious politics.