The effects of organizational silence on informal communication: A public hospital case

Increasing hierarchical levels due to bureaucratic structuring in organizations makes communication difficult. Employees prefer to remain silent rather than expressing their dissatisfaction to senior management. It is thought that organizational silence affects informal communication because employees who show silence towards top management tend to share their dissatisfaction with their colleagues. The aim of this study is to determine whether organizational silence has an impact on informal communication and in which direction. In the study, Organizational Silence Scale developed by Dyne (2003) and adapted to Turkish by Şehitoğlu (2010) was used to measure the level of organizational silence; In order to measure the level of informal communication, Informal Communication Channels Scale developed by Bektaş (2014) and a questionnaire including socio-demographic characteristics of employees such as gender, age and education level were used. Firstly, reliability analyzes, descriptive statistical methods, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis tests, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data. According to the data obtained from the study; There was a positive relationship between participants' general organizational silence and informal communication levels and a significant positive effect of organizational silence on informal communication. Even if the relationship and impact dimension is low level, it is expected that the levels of informal communication will increase when the organizational silence levels increase. Therefore, considering the factors that cause employees to take organizational silence action, it is considered important for health institutions to create a working environment where effective communication can be achieved and to feed informal communication positively. Key Words: Organizational Silence, Informal Communication, Health Institutions