Investigation of the relationship between organizational silence and organizational citizenship behavior: The case of Artvin Çoruh University

Organizational silence (OS), which has become a concept emphasized by organizations today, is defined as employees hiding information, thoughts, or ideas related to their work. Employees may choose to remain silent for various reasons, and this can cause various problems for organizations. Another significant concept for organizations is organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which affects many factors that increase organizational success. OCB is defined as voluntary extra-role behaviors exhibited by employees in organizations. Achieving the goals of the organization is feasible if the employees have OCB awareness. This research was conducted to examine the relationship between OS and OCB. Within the scope of the research, the academic and administrative staff of Artvin Çoruh University were selected as the population. The data were analyzed with the answers given by 268 employees out of a total of 760 personnel. As measurement tools, the 15-item "Organizational Silence Scale" developed by Dyne, Ang, and Botero (2003) and the 24-item "Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale" developed by Podsakoff et al. (1990) were translated into Turkish and used. Factor analysis, reliability analysis, and normality tests were performed on the data. According to the results of the normality analysis, it was determined that the data was not normally distributed. According to the normality test results, Independent sample t-test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Mann Whitney-U Test, Anova Test were used to test the hypotheses. In addition, correlation analysis was performed to test the relationship between variables, and regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of OS level on OCB. As a result of the analysis, hypotheses that showed significant differences in the OS level according to gender, age, marital status, education level, whether the employees are academic or administrative personnel, and union membership were rejected. However, the hypothesis was accepted because the level of OS varied significantly depending on whether the academic staff had administrative duties. While the relevant hypothesis was accepted by determining that the OCB level diverged according to the working period, the relevant hypothesis was rejected because the OCB level did not differ according to the age variable. As a result of the correlation analysis, no significant relationship was found between the levels of OS and OCB. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that the level of OS affects OCB. The analysis results were compared with other studies in the literature, and finally, the research was concluded by making recommendations.