Research On The Influence Of Showing Benevolence Leadership And Superficial Values On Employee Silence

The transition of society in China generates more uncertainty in environment, and thusrequires organizations to encourage their employees to actively offer advice and suggestions,widely and deeply enrolling in the organizational management. However,"Employee Silence"phenomenon is pervasive in organizations. Although the employees know the truth, notice theproblem or hold constructive comments, they are reluctant to voice and withhold theiropinions for various concerns. This kind of negative behavior is likely to cause recessive lossto the organization. Within the cultural context characterized by interpersonal relationship,face and harmony in Chinese society, it deserves more research attention that how managersprevent their employees from remaining silent and inspire them to actively voice ideas byidentifying employees’ values, showing effective leadership behavior, and creatingatmosphere for open communication.Based on the theories on social exchange and conflict avoidance, this research adoptedan interpersonal relationship-oriented perspective to study how the showing benevolenceleadership and individual values of superficial harmony would determine the employeesilence in terms of various motives. Besides, I also examined the role of psychological safetyin this mechanism. I intend to reveal the extent to which leadership and cultural valuesdifferently affect kinds of employee silence and examine the psychological process.I conducted an empirical study with227samples. Results of this research are as follows:(1)―showing benevolence‖leadership behaviors negatively relate to employees’ acquiescentsilence;(2) individual values for superficial harmony positively relate to employees’defensive silence and disregardful silence;(3) employees’ perception of psychological safetyregarding of the voicing situation negatively relates to employee silence;(4) employees’psychological safety perception fully mediates the relation between―showing benevolence‖leadership behaviors and acquiescent silence;(5) employees’ psychological safety partlymediates the relation between individual values for superficial harmony and defensive silenceand disregardful silence respectively.Conclusions are drawn from the research results with discussion of the theoretical andpractical implication:(1) Researchers and practitioners should analyze and respond toemployee silence depending on its intrinsic motives;(2) Leadership behaviors should becontingent according to different motives of employee silence;(3) Managers should create an open and frank organizational communication atmosphere to enhance employees’ confidenceregarding to the comfort and safety of voicing situation;(4) Organizations should design themanagement tactics for silence behavior and arrange the recruitment process according todifferent individual values.