Stacey Parker, Davina Moore, Yiqiong Li

Whether employees choose to speak up or stay silent on workplace issues can have large ramifications for organisational safety and performance. Although considerable research has been conducted on the causes and consequences of employee voice, research attention on employee silence is in its infancy. Moreover, much of the research on voice and silence has been cross-sectional, neglecting to consider the temporal dynamics involved (Van Dyne et al., 2003; Morrison & Milliken, 2000). In this research, we used a 10-week experience sampling methodology to test the temporal dynamics of voice and silence, with emotional exhaustion and psychological climate for voice considered as important resources that can shape voice and silence behaviour over time. As there was no suitable existing measure of silence, we also contribute to the literature by developing one. Drawing on conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll et al., 2018), we position emotional exhaustion as part of an energy resource loss process that perpetuates employee silence. As silence demands self-regulatory resources to withhold information, we also expect it leads to further subsequent emotional exhaustion. More specifically, we expected emotional exhaustion the previous week would predict more silence the next week, and vice versa. Conversely, we position voice climate as a part of a social resource gain process that benefits voice. As voice improves connectedness and the work situation, voice in turn could lead to more subsequent voice climate. More specifically, we expected that voice climate the previous week would predict more voice the next week, and vice versa. Participants were healthcare workers (N=192; n=1479) who completed at least two of 10 weekly surveys reflecting on their voice, silence, emotional exhaustion, and voice climate. We first conducted a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis to determine if our measures of voice, silence, emotional exhaustion, and voice climate were distinct constructs (X2(96)=126.40, p=.021, CFI=.997, TLI=.996, RMSEA=.015, SRMRW=.013, SRMRB=.028). We next conducted Dynamic SEM to test our hypothesised time-lagged effects, while accounting for autoregression and between-person variance. The model supported the positive recursive relationship of voice and voice climate. However, there were no lagged effects of emotional exhaustion and silence. Within occasions, silence and exhaustion were positively associated. This study is, to our knowledge, the first weekly study comparing voice and silence alongside relevant causes and consequences. Prior research assumes voice and silence are opposite ends of a continuum, but our research suggests these are distinct and have different dynamic and momentary causes and consequences.

By the conclusion of this presentation, attendees will:
• Have new knowledge on employee voice and silence behaviour, which has implications for health and safety, innovation, and other collaborative processes in workplaces.
• Understand how employee voice and silence behaviour can develop and unfold over time, depending on energy and social resources.
• Gain insights into the potential ways to intervene to improve employee voice and mitigate silence, so that workplaces are safer, and employees can perform their work optimally.