The Factors Of Team Silence And The Mechanism On Team Construction

In order to adapt to the rapid development of technology and the fast changing ofeconomic environment, team known for its flexibility and efficiency plays an importantrole in the enterprise. Team silence is a common phenomenon in the enterprise whichmeans that team members intentionally remain views and opinions when they haveabilities to improve organizational potential problems. Team silence will not only hinderteam communication, but also affect decision-making and experience-sharing. Teamsilence is more common for Chinese enterprises because the ideological of silence isgolden has been respected by Chinese person for a long history and the Chinese cultureemphasis on collectivism and human relationship. But team silence has not attractedenough attention of Chinese researchers. Thus, based on Chinese culture, we selected teamexchange relationship as the antecedents of team silence and team effectiveness as its outcomes.192millitary teams in China were selected as the research objects, we usedempirical methods to study team silence’s antecedents and consequences at team level.This study provides a theoretical basis for Chinese enterprises to re-establish managementstyle and cultural construction.The conclusions of this study are as following:(1)Leader-member exchange has asignificant negative effect on team silence(B=-.357, P<0.05).(2)Team-members exchangehas a significant negative effect on team silence(B=-.357, P<0.05).(3)Team-memberexchange is partly mediated the relationship between leader-member exchange and teamsilence(Z=-1.461, P<0.05).(4)Team silence has a significant negative effect on teamsatisfaction and team innovation(B=-.458,-.545; P<0.01).The effect of team silent onteam performance is not significant (B=-.079).(5)Team conflicts play a mediating rolebetween team silence and team satisfaction. The mediating role of team conflict betweenteam silence and team innovation is not significant.This research investigated artillery teams in the army and explored the factors ofteam silence and the mechanism on team construction through empirical analysis methodbased on the context of Chinese culture. This study found that establishing a goodexchange relation in the team can reduce team silence and make the communicationchannels smooth. In this context, team conflict can also be reduced and the team willbecome even more effectiveness.