When employees don’t speak up, they may be exhibiting social or opportunistic silence.
In Part One, we focused on passive silence and defensive silence.
We’ll now consider social silence and opportunistic silence.
Social Silence
Employees withhold work-related ideas, information, or opinions with the goal of benefiting other people or the organization—based on altruistic or cooperative motives.
In socially motivated silence, employees do not complain and they tend to tolerate inconveniences at work without voicing their grievances.
The reasons may be manifold: an altruistic personality, a high motive for affiliation, or an interest in maintaining their social capital in the group.
How to address this:
- Welcome and encourage employees to voice their opinions, particularly in regard to other people in the team and organization.
- Communicate that the only way you and your team will improve your products and work lives is to say something, and that open dialogue does not need to change personal relations.
- Emphasize the importance of open and honest communication to group cohesion and collaboration.
Opportunistic Silence
Employees withhold information to achieve perceived advantages for themselves.
The behaviors that are characteristic of opportunistic silence include withholding of or provision of incomplete or distorted information, with the purpose to mislead, disguise, or confuse.
Information withholding, or deviant silence, is a very powerful tactic leading to counter-productive work behavior.
Employees may also withhold information because they do not want to give away power and status or just because they want to avoid additional workload.
How to address this:
- Directly address situations when employees hoard information to the detriment of others.
- Active team building may need to take place, so employees recognize that they help themselves when they help others to succeed.
- Demonstrate the value of speaking up and sharing information for the whole team.
Have you experienced or observed social or opportunistic silence?
If your organization is suffering from employee silence, please book a call to discuss management and employee training. https://laurelandassociates.com/contact/
May your learning be sweet,
Deborah
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