Research On The Mechanisms Of How Power Distance Orientation Influence Employee Silence

Whereas both management scholars and practitioners emphasize the importance of employee input for improving workplace practices, research suggests that many employees are hesitant to express their opinions or voice their views because doing so might lead to retaliation. Consequently, they remain silent rather than speak up about workplace happenings, actions or ideas of others, needed changes, and other job-related issues. Employee silence as a multifaceted construct is the intentional withholding of critical work-related information by employees from their workgroup members. It has detrimental effects on decision-making and process of change by blocking alternative views, negative feedback, and accurate information. China as a high power distance country, Employee silence is universal in various organizations and it has culture value roots. Employees perform more silence in high power distance country like China. Chinese traditional culture values silence is gold, emphasizes employees must obey and respect their leaders. Power distance orientation explains someone’s opinion about power and power relation. This research integrates the theories of individual culture value and employee behavior motivation to explore the employee silence mechanism in Chinese context and examine how employee leader power distance orientation and leader power distance orientation influences employee silence by creating both the silence employee at the micro level and the silence environment at the macro level.The present research first reviewed the power distance and employee silence related literatures, and then conducted three empirical studies. Study one examined the effects of leader power distance orientation on employee silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence and Disregardful Silence) with LMX and distributive justice climate as the moderator in individual level and team level respectively. Study two examined the effects of employee power distance orientation on employee silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence and Disregardful Silence) with employee perceived organizational status as the moderator. As a comparison, Study two also examined the effects of leader power distance orientation on employee silence (Acquiescent Silence, Defensive Silence and Disregardful Silence) with leader perceived organizational status as the moderator. Study three examined the mediating mechanisms of how employee power distance orientation and leader power distance orientation influence employee silence in individual level and team level respectively.In a survey-based study of467employees nested within81workgroups, Study one found that leader power distance orientation has positive cross-level effects on employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence and disregardful silence, and LMX and distributive justice climate respectively moderated the cross-level relationships between leader power distance orientation and three dimensions of employee silence in different levels.In a survey-based study of568employees nested within108workgroups, Study two found that leader power distance orientation and employee power distance orientation both have significant effects on employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence and disregardful silence, and leader perceived organizational status and employee perceived organizational status respectively moderated the relationships between power distance orientation and employee silence in different levels. Employee perceived organizational status can weaken the relationships between employee power distance orientation and employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence and disregardful silence, In contrast, leader perceived organizational status strengthen the relationships between leader power distance orientation and employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence.Study three based on empowerment theories examined the mediating mechanisms of how employee power distance orientation and leader power distance orientation influence employee silence in individual level and team level respectively. In a survey-based study of568employees nested within108workgroups, Study three found that in team level leader power distance orientation was positively related to employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence and disregardful silence, with team empowerment climate partially mediating these relationships. In individual level, employee power distance orientation was also positively related to employee acquiescent silence, defensive silence and disregardful silence, with employee psychological empowerment partially mediating these relationships.After completing the three empirical studies, the present research qualitatively analyzed the cognitive mechanism of employee power distance orientation and its effect on employee silence. All the power bases differences between leader and subordinate can create employee power distance orientation. Employee power distance orientation not only reflects leader and subordinate’s position power bases distance, but also their individual power bases distance. From the view of power using duality, subordinate will have a certain degree of dependence and alienation on leader’s power using. In four types of dependence--alienation contexts, subordinate will have different power distance orientation perception, different emotional involvement and different exchange relations with leader. Thus employee will have different level of silence toward their leader finally.Finally, this research summarized the main conclusions. Research limitations and future research directions were also discussed.