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.