Managing Silence in Workplaces explores employee voice and the issues inherent for organizations in not allowing their employees to freely express their feelings and thoughts in the workplace. The study promotes a transdisciplinary approach combining perspectives on employee silence from human resources management, psychology and economics.

Managing Silence in Workplaces explores employee voice and the issues inherent for organizations in not allowing their employees to freely express their feelings and thoughts in the workplace. The study promotes a transdisciplinary approach combining perspectives on employee silence from human resources management, psychology and economics.

Are employees encouraged to speak up or to pipe down? Do they share ideas openly or do they remain silent in ways that are hurtful to individuals and harmful to the functioning of their organizations? This collection of 12 essays addresses these and related issues from a variety of scholarly perspectives.

Workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment unfolds as a process, usually recursive and escalating, that involves multiple actors and stakeholders. Through Section 1 of this volume, the antecedents and effects of workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment are detailed. Apart from discussing individual and organizational causative factors and adverse outcomes for targets and organizations, this section presents issues pertaining to target coping and survival and power versus powerlessness as dialectic rather than sovereign. Emergent research examining the physiological impact on targets, the controversial interplay of personality and the striving towards well-being is showcased. Section 2 brings together chapters on the various key players in the workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment scenario. The focus here is on targets, bullies, bystanders, leaders and significant others as well as the range of interventionists (such as HR managers, therapists, organizational practitioners, unionists and so on) who address situations of misbehaviour. The motives, experiences and outcomes of the former group and the roles, dilemmas and challenges of the latter group are elaborated.

Among the most fundamental decisions made in the workplace includes whether or not to express their ideas and concernsor even if it is possible to do so. Voice and Silence in Organizations is poised to become a classic as the first book of its kind on this topic, Presenting a collection of 14 original essays that address this question from a wide variety of scholarly perspectives with chapters by highly regarded psychologists, sociologists and management scholars from around the world offer new conceptual insights and empirical findings that promise to become valuable contributions to this burgeoning area.The text is organized into five major sections and covers; basic concepts (including an overview of voice and silence in organizations); psychological processes involved with voice and silence (including the attributional processes that give them meaning and their roles as defense mechanisms); antecedents and consequences of voice and silence in organizations; counterproductive ways in which silence is used (such as a means of aggression and social ostracism) The monograph concludes with an analysis of what the contributions as a whole reveal about this field and the challenges it faces for the future.

Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent—but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of “fitting in” and “going along” spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing. This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation. Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance Create a culture where it’s “safe” to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today’s knowledge economy Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization Shed the “yes-men” approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.

This volume contains a further selection of the best papers presented at the Seventh Emonet conference (Montreal, Canada, August 2010), following on from Volume 7 and is augmented with invited chapters by leading scholars in the field. It focuses on the experience, dynamics and regulation of emotion and the emotionally intelligent organization.