Employee silence motives: Investigation of dimensionality and development of measures

In four studies, I examine the motives for employee silence. In Study 1, I examine open-ended survey responses to determine the nature and scope of silence motives. Study 2 develops measures of these motives and explores their factor structure. Study 3 refines the measures and provides confirmatory evidence of factor structure. Study 4 examines relationships between the new measures and related factors (employee voice, psychological safety, neuroticism, extraversion). Results indicate that six dimensions of silence motives (ineffectual, relational, defensive, diffident, disengaged, and deviant) emerged from the data, which can be reliably measured and provide incremental value for understanding and assessing employee silence

Employee Silence Motives: Investigation of Dimensionality and Development of Measures

In four studies, I examine the motives for employee silence. In Study 1, open-ended survey responses are examined to determine the nature and scope of silence motives. Study 2 develops measures of these motives and explores their factor structure. Study 3 refines the measures and provides confirmatory evidence of factor structure. Study 4 examines relationships between the new measures and related factors (employee voice, psychological safety, neuroticism, extraversion). Results indicate six dimensions of silence motives (ineffectual, relational, defensive, diffident, disengaged, and deviant) emerge from the data, can be reliably measured, and provide incremental value for understanding and assessing employee silence

Reconceptualizing Workplace Commitment to Redress a Stretched Construct: Revisiting Assumptions and Removing Confounds

To better understand the workplace commitments experienced by organizational members, we reconceptualize commitment to highlight its distinctiveness and improve its applicability across all workplace targets. We present a continuum of psychological bonds and reconceptualize commitment as a particular type of bond reflecting volitional dedication and responsibility for a target. We then present a process model applicable to any workplace target to bring clarity, consistency, and synergy to the research and management of workplace commitments

Quondam commitments: An examination of commitments employees no longer have

This paper introduces the concept of quondam commitments - commitments employees used to, but no longer have. A review of the literature reveals that this prevalent phenomenon has been overlooked and cannot be sufficiently understood from existing scholarship. We present an inductive study to begin exploring the nature of quondam commitments and the importance of addressing this oversight. Specifically, 420 employees from three organizations responded to open-ended survey questions asking them to describe a quondam commitment and explain why they no longer have that commitment. A variety of reasons for quondam commitment emerged from our content analysis, most of which are unique from established commitment antecedents. The reasons for quondam commitment are applicable across various prior commitment targets, but vary by target in noteworthy ways. We then discuss the implications of quondam commitment for management practice and scholarship. To facilitate future theory development and empirical research we present a systematic roadmap and an initial process model proposing several antecedents and moderators of quondam commitment and its outcomes for individuals, teams, and organizations. The roadmap highlights numerous gaps in our understanding pertaining to construct development, testing the initial model, extending our current findings, opportunities for bridging micro-macro divides, and addressing study limitations

Authoritarian leadership and employee silence in China

We examine the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour with 324 employees in 16 state-owned manufacturing enterprises in China. We draw from theories of motivation and person–environment fit to explain the mediating roles of psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem, and the moderating effects of power distance orientation. Regression analyses show that authoritarian leadership has a positive relationship with employee silence behaviour. Mediation analyses show that both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem partially mediate the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence. Moderation analysis revealed that the direct relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour is stronger for employees with high (as opposed to low) power distance orientation. Additionally, moderated-mediation analyses show that the mediating effects of both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem are stronger for employees with low (as opposed to high) power distance orientation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Trust Repair

Trust is critical for building and maintaining relationships and for effectively working together. When trust is broken is has serious consequences for both individuals and organizations. In this review we examine the research on how to repair broken trust. We begin by defining trust, how it is broken, how the actor’s violation is attributed, and what it means to repair it. We then discuss two dominant trust repair strategies: short-term and long-term. Short-term strategies include verbal statements such as excuses, apologies, and denials, and compensatory arrangements such as repayment for a loss. Longer-term strategies include structural rearrangements of the relationship (e.g., contracts, monitoring), reframing the violation (e.g., attempts to shift blame, mitigate perceptions of harm), granting forgiveness, and remaining silent. Lastly, we discuss concerns for the future of trust research such as construct clarity, measurement, and contextual considerations

Reconceptualizing workplace commitment to redress a stretched construct: Revisiting assumptions and removing confounds

To better understand the workplace commitments experienced by organizational members, we reconceptualize commitment to highlight its distinctiveness and improve its applicability across all workplace targets. We present a continuum of psychological bonds and reconceptualize commitment as a particular type of bond reflecting volitional dedication and responsibility for a target. We then present a process model applicable to any workplace target to bring clarity, consistency, and synergy to the research and management of workplace commitments