Why Employees Often Remain Silent and What Needs to be Done to Encourage Speaking Up

by Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison

For a compliance program to be effective, employees must be willing to report suspected wrongdoing.  But it cannot be assumed that employees who see or suspect something will say something.  It has been estimated that less than half of all employees who witness wrongdoing report it.  Wells Fargo is a good case in point.  It is clear that a large number of employees recognized that something was not right.  Some spoke up and were ignored.  Others didn’t even speak up.

We all like to believe that we are ethical people and that when faced with a tough choice we will do the right thing.  But the evidence suggests otherwise.  Good people often find themselves in situations that create strong social cues or even overt pressures to withhold information about misconduct.  The result is what’s known as “employee silence.”

Evidence suggests that silence is a problem in both the public and private sector, and in organizations both large and small. This past year, over 400,000 employees from more than 80 agencies responded to an attitude survey known as the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.  As in years past, only around 60% responded with agreement to the statement “I can disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal.”  These results are consistent with a number of investigations in recent years that have suggested fairly widespread climates of silence in places like the Veterans Health Administration, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, General Motors, and parts of the U.S. intelligence and military community.

Why is employee silence so pervasive?  Research from psychology and organizational behavior suggest two primary factors that cause employees to withhold rather than disclose information.  The first is a sense of futility.   To bear the time, effort and risk of reporting, one must believe that there will be some response – that the issue will be addressed.  Yet often employees believe that saying something will not make a difference – that no action will be taken.  Rightly or wrongly, they feel that the information will fall on deaf ears.  That no one wants to hear it.

The second powerful reason for silence is fear of negative repercussions.  An employee may fear that by reporting he or she will be viewed as a troublemaker or complainer, lose respect or support from others, receive a negative performance review, get assigned to undesirable projects, not be considered for promotion, or even get fired.  Studies have shown that fear of punishment is pervasive in many organizations, and that it is a key reason why people remain silent in the face of wrongdoing.

A reasonable question to ask is whether such fears are justified.  Often they are.  It is well known that both those who report internally as well as those who blow the whistle to external agents may suffer negative career consequences for speaking up.  A recent CNN article reported that a number of former Wells Fargo employees were fired after calling the confidential ethics hotline, and that many still fear that there will be negative repercussions if they report mistreatment or ethical violations.   Moreover, one employee was quoted as saying “If and when we do speak up, it is disregarded…They will twist what you say to make it seem like you are crazy.”

An organizational culture characterized by fear and feelings of futility can be very hard to change.  By definition, culture is deeply rooted, reflecting entrenched and taken-for-granted beliefs and assumptions.  However, we can learn something from companies that have managed to foster cultures that support employee voice.  What these companies have in common is leadership, at all levels, that creates an environment of psychological safety and receptivity to employee input, through their actions as well as their words.  Saying that one has an “open door” is not enough.  Supervisors must be truly accessible and open to feedback (especially negative), opinions different from their own, and information about problems.  Studies have also  shown that managers who adopt a consultative style of leadership, regularly seeking out input from their employees, are more likely to receive unsolicited input, as the act of consultation conveys that they want to hear what employees have to say. In addition, it is important for leaders to take timely action when issues are reported, and to make sure that employees know that action was taken, so that they will not see speaking up as futile.  Employee silence is also curtailed when employees view their leaders as highly ethical and as modeling ethical conduct.

Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison is the ITT Harold Geneen Professor of Creative Management and Vice Dean of Faculty at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

This blog is based on a longer research summary which can be found in Morrison, E.W. 2014. Employee Voice and Silence. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. Vol. 1: 173-197.

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