An applied study on the causes and outcomes of organizational silence

Organizational silence is defined as "employees' deliberate avoidance of expressing opinions, knowledge and thoughts about the improvement of their work and organization". Organizational silence can be caused by various reasons and may have diverse outcomes at organizational, administrative and individual levels. The aim of this study is to examine the causes and perceived outcomes of organizational silence, whether these causes and outcomes differ according to the demographic characteristics of employees and whether there is a significant relationship between these causes and outcomes. In the scope of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted on 33 employees working in a public organization. In additional to the in-depth interviews, in order to provide data richness, a questionnaire survey about the causes and outcomes of organizational silence were conducted to the same employees. As a result of the research, it was observed that the strongest causes of organizational silence are administrative and organizational causes, and the most likely outcomes of organizational silence are the ones that make the employee unhappy. According to the demographic characteristics of the participants, the outcomes of perceptual differences analysis of the causes of organizational silence have shown that there was a significant difference between the factor of the age of participants, total working durations and the factor of the causes administrative and organizational from the sub-dimensions of the causes of organizational silence. According to the demographic characteristics of the participants, the outcomes of perceptual differences analysis of the perceived outcomes of silence have shown that there was a significant difference between the factor of the age of participants, the duration of working in the organization, total working durations and the factor of the outcomes limiting the improvement and development from the sub-dimensions of the perceived outcomes of silence. The analysis of the relationship between the causes of employees silence and the perceived outcomes of silence has shown that there is a significant relationship between the causes of organizational silence, such as administrative causes, organizational causes, fear of isolation, fear of damaging relationships and perceived outcomes of silence.