Employee Communication and Silence: The Role of Managers' Voice Solicitation

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to explore employee communication as a distinctive Human Resources (HR) practice and its relationship to employee silence. Building on signalling theory and drawing on a nationally representative sample of 1200 respondents from the UK workforce, our findings reveal that effective employee communication is negatively related to employee silence via the mediating role of managerial voice solicitation. Our study makes significant contributions to the theory of Human Resource Management. Specifically, we depart from studies exploring bundles of HR practices to focus on employee communication as a distinctively important HR practice. In addition, our findings shed light on the existence of a signalling chain, highlighting the important role managers can play in dampening employee silence and its negative workplace repercussions. Furthermore, in contrast to previous work focusing on structural factors promoting employee silence, our study turns the spotlight on ways to alleviate it. Given the harmful effects of employee silence on both employees and organisations, our study offers actionable insights into how such a behaviour can be diminished in the workplace.