Organizational Silence Affecting the Effectiveness of Organizations in Kenya: A Case Study of Safaricom Call Center

A Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The general objective of this study was to determine organizational silence factors which affect the effectiveness of organizations in Kenya. To attain this, the study determined the causes of organizational silence and the effects of organizational silence that affected the effectiveness of organizations in Kenya. It also determined the strategies that could be used to break organizational silence in Kenya. This study is important because it will help organizations in Kenya have an in depth understanding of organizational silence, in terms of the causes, effects, and strategies of managing this phenomenon that has great effect on their effectiveness. It will also clearly show employees at all levels of the organization the role they play in this silence. This study used a descriptive research design to build a profile of organizational silence in Kenya. It used stratified random sampling to study 92 respondents out of the 1617 employees at Safaricom Call Center (SCC). Primary data was collected using a questionnaire. A detailed research procedure was then used to ensure credibility and accuracy of data obtained. On the causes of silence in the organization, majority of the respondents agreed that management beliefs about junior employees made managers act in ways that led to silence. While on the causes of silence in individuals the study found that the majority of respondents disagreed that speaking up was pointless. They suggested that there was some level of victimization on those who spoke up which led to fear. On the effects of silence on employees, the study found that most employees were not interested in their jobs and neither did they trust organization as much as they did when they joined it. However many of them felt the organization had taken steps to have them engaged and this was consistent with their response that problems or work related issues were also their concerns and not just of management. Most of them felt that the organization had taken into consideration the suggestions employees made on how to improve effectiveness. Respondents felt that problems in the organization could be identified easily if all employees spoke up and that if employees spoke up vi management could get feedback to be used to improve the organization. They also agreed that they would be influenced into silence if they joined an organization where silence was prevalent. On ethical climate as a strategy that could be used to manage silence, the study found that respondents felt that it was wrong for employees to remain silent about wrong things that happened in the organization but they would only speak if it was not to their disadvantage. They suggested they would be encouraged to speak if the organization cared more and created rules to protect them. Most of them agreed that adequate voice mechanism had been adopted and that a verbal assurance of no victimization from the organization would be encouraging enough for employees to voice anything. The study concluded that organizational silence was caused by the management beliefs as well as the organizational structure and culture. On the other hand, within individuals silence was caused by the individuals’ reluctance to go against the public opinion, lack of trust in the supervisors and fear of victimization. Silence had an effect on both the employees and the organization. On the employees it affected their level of commitment and trusts while on the organization, it slowed identification and solving of problems as well as caused development of a negative organizational culture. According to the study, the organization could create an ethical climate as a way of managing silence. They could also adopt practices that would improve employees’ sense of trust. The study recommended that the organization should put greater measures to ensure that a culture of silence does not take root and also adopt practices that would make employees feel safe to speak up for instance strict policies on how management should treat employees to reduce fear among them. Management should device ways of getting employees more engaged. On a positive note the study recommended that management should find out what practices contributed to the fact that employees do not experience burnouts and maintain them. The organization should also maintain the voice mechanisms already in use because employees felt that they were good