Employee Silence among College Teachers: An Exploration

Upward communication is an essential ingredient for the smooth functioning of any human organization. Unfortunately, in many organizations, employees remain silent even though they have something important to say to their authorities, which causes serious consequences to the organization as well as for employees. Employee silence means intentionally not expressing the existing problems, not giving feedback on setbacks, not making useful suggestions, not providing constructive criticisms about employee’s evaluations of his or her organizational circumstances to persons who are perceived to be capable of effecting change. Misinterpreted and unaddressed silence might result in long lasting, hidden conflicts that become burden for change implementation and long-lasting dissatisfaction. The purpose of the present study is: – to explore and understand whether employee silence exists among college teachers in the Kerala context. 30 college teachers were selected and interviewed and the data was content analyzed. Results revealed that the majority of the college teachers in Kerala experience employee silence and the main reasons included conformity, fear of negative consequences, negative previous experiences, individual dispositions.