Employee Silence and Workplace Bullying

Abstract

Employee silence about workplace bullying and mistreatment is prevalent and harmful to employee well-being and productivity. It limits organizations’ ability to address the costly problem ofworkplace bullying by precluding interventions and prevention efforts. This chapter focuses on workplace bullying–employee silence linkages drawn from foundational and contemporary research across an ever-widening base of international scholarship. We review theoretical devel- opments and empirical studies on employee silence in response to workplace bullying, typically operationalized as withheld complaint or objection. We trace efforts to validate and refine concepts as well as explain the workplace bullying–employee silence relationship and its strength. In so doing, we con- sider predictors, outcomes and correlates ofbullying-induced silence along with the roles of emotions, social identity and multilevel theories of employee silence. Future research directions are discussed, including conceptual and methodological challenges in advancing knowledge, in the hope of spurring new thinking for theory-driven studies on employee silence about workplace bullying for scientific and practical gains.