The effects of the employee silence and workplace friendship on innovation capability: The mediating role of service climate

This study is one of the pursuits to determine the effects of employee silence, workplace friendship and service climate as the reasons why public and private enterprises in the Turkish civil aviation industry fall behind their global competitors in terms of innovation capability. However, since there is a limited number of studies addressing the relationships between the variables in the research model, it focuses on filling the lack of findings and knowledge in the literature. The aim of the study is to reveal the effects of employee silence and workplace friendship on innovation capability through service climate. The sampling of the study consists of flight and ground personnel working in public and private enterprises operating in the Turkish civil aviation industry. In the study, data were collected with the help of a structured survey consisting of scales related to variables whose reliability and validity have been previously tested in the literature. First, a measurement model was developed by utilizing confirmatory factor analysis to test the reliability and validity of the aforementioned scales. Then, based on this measurement model, structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypothesized relationships. According to the research findings, it has been revealed that only acquiescent silence, as one of the dimensions of employee silence negatively and significantly affects innovation capability. In contrast, it has been observed that workplace friendship and service climate positively and significantly influence innovation capability. Additionally, while acquiescent silence has a negative and significant effect on service climate, workplace friendship has a positive and significant effect on service climate. Furthermore, the research findings indicate that service climate fully mediates the relationship between acquiescent silence and innovation capability. However, it has been revealed that service climate does not play a mediating role in both the relationship between protective silence and innovation capability and the relationship between protective silence and innovation capability. On the other hand, it was determined that service climate fully mediated the relationship between workplace friendship and innovation capability. Lastly, the study draws implications for theoretical and managerial practices, discusses limitations related to the research findings, and provides directions for future research on this topic.