Review
The dynamics of silencing conflict

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2009.06.007Get rights and content

Abstract

In many organizations, when people perceive a difference with one another they do not fully express themselves. Despite creating innumerable problems, silencing conflict is a persistent phenomenon. While the antecedents of acts of silence are well documented, little is known about how some organizations develop norms of silence. To explore the evolution of a norm of silence, we draw on an ethnographic study that spanned the entire life of a dot.com, starting with its founding and ending with its sale to a larger company. Distilling our data using causal loop diagrams, we map the processes through which acts of silence became self-reinforcing. Drawing on that analysis, we build a formal model of silencing that helps identify the conditions under which silence moves from an isolated incident into a self-reinforcing norm. Our analysis has implications for understanding both the development of a repeated pattern of silence and the broader process of norm formation.

Section snippets

Methods

Notes.com was the brainchild of four college students looking to make their entry into the burgeoning dot.com market in the winter of 1999.2 The company was founded to provide on-line lecture notes for college courses through a website. Notes were initially going to serve as the company's way to attract students to their website and eventually would serve as a product for which the company could charge. The plan was to expand the

Dysfunctional pattern of silencing conflict

Our focus on the dysfunctional pattern of silencing conflict that developed in the relationship between the founders and the professional managers emerged from four observations. First, while starting with much apparent potential, the relationship between the founders and their new CEO, Peter, deteriorated significantly over the life of the company.4

Mapping the emergence of silence

The failure of the professional managers and the founders to explain their own perspectives or to inquire as to the thinking behind the others’ perspectives diffused their attention, taxed their scarce financial resources, and created frustration for everyone involved. The interactions at Notes.com therefore provide a useful window into the evolution of a dysfunctional pattern of silencing conflict. Below we seek to explain how the pattern of silencing conflict in their relationship was

Formal analysis

Since we studied only one firm that did descend into the silent spiral, the question of when individual acts of silence produce a norm of silence is fundamentally unanswerable by a direct appeal to our data. Nevertheless, our analysis does not have to be similarly silent. To the contrary, the principal benefit of developing a theory (as opposed to a collection of empirical observations) is that its logical structure generates inferences (and therefore testable predictions) beyond the conditions

Discussion

Our account and subsequent analysis of the history of Notes.com yields three insights into the nature of silence in organizations. First, mapping the individual acts of silence and their cumulative impact suggests that such acts can become self-reinforcing, producing a counter productive norm capable of thwarting the organization's best intentions. Second, developing a formal model of our causal map suggests that whether an act of silence is an isolated incident or the catalyst to a

Acknowledgments

Funding for this project was provided by the University of Michigan Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life, an Alfred P. Sloan Center and the Harvard Business School Division of Research. We greatly appreciate the help of the participants at the company studied. We also are especially grateful to our research assistant Margaret DiLaura. Teresa Amabile, Lotte Bailyn, Tiziana Casciaro, Jennifer Chatman, Amy Edmondson, Robin Ely, Martha Feldman, Linda Hill, Brad Morrison, Nitin Nohria,

References (91)

  • K. Bettenhausen et al.

    The emergence of norms in competitive decision-making groups

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (1985)
  • J.L. Bourgeois

    Strategic goals, perceived uncertainty, and economic performance in volatile environments

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1985)
  • C.B. Broderick

    Understanding family process

    (1993)
  • W.B. Cannon

    The James–Lange theory of emotions: A critical examination and an alternative theory

    American Journal of Psychology

    (1927)
  • J. Cassidy

    Dot.con

    (2002)
  • M.C. Conlee et al.

    The effects of recipient desire to hear on news transmission

    Sociometry

    (1973)
  • K. Cook et al.

    Exchange networks and the analysis of complex organizations

    Research in the Sociology in Organizations

    (1984)
  • L.A. Coser

    The functions of social conflict

    (1956)
  • C.D. Cramton

    The mutual knowledge problem and its consequences for dispersed collaborations

    Organization Science

    (2001)
  • C.K.W. De Dreu et al.

    Task and relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis

    Journal of Applied Psychology

    (2003)
  • V.J. Derlega et al.

    Self disclosure

    (1993)
  • A.C. Edmondson

    Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (1999)
  • A.C. Edmondson et al.

    Disrupted routines: Team learning and new technology implementation in hospitals

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (2001)
  • K.M. Eisenhardt et al.

    Organizational growth: Linking founding team strategy, environment, and growth among U.S. semiconductor ventures 1978–1988

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (1990)
  • D.C. Feldman

    The development and enforcement of group norms

    Academy of Management Review

    (1984)
  • G.A. Fine

    Negotiated orders and organizational cultures

    Annual Review of Sociology

    (1984)
  • M.P. Follett

    Creative collaboration

  • J. Forrester

    Industrial dynamics

    (1961)
  • D. Garvin

    Learning in action

    (2000)
  • Gehman, H. W., & the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. (2003). Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report 1....
  • B.G. Glaser et al.

    The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research

    (1967)
  • H. Guetzkow et al.

    An analysis of conflict in decision making groups

    Human Relations

    (1954)
  • S. Harter

    Authenticity

  • A.O. Hirschman

    Exit, voice and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations and states

    (1970)
  • D.C. Jack

    Silencing the self

    (1991)
  • W. James

    What is an emotion?

    Mind

    (1884)
  • W. James

    The physical basis of emotion

    Psychological Review

    (1894)
  • I. Janis

    Groupthink

    (1982)
  • K.A. Jehn

    A multimethod examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (1995)
  • K.A. Jehn

    A qualitative analysis of conflict types and dimensions in organizational groups

    Administrative Science Quarterly

    (1997)
  • K.A. Jehn et al.

    The dynamic nature of conflict: A longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group performance

    Academy of Management Journal

    (2001)
  • W.A. Kahn

    Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work

    Academy of Management Journal

    (1990)
  • D. Kantor et al.

    Inside the family

    (1975)
  • C.A. Kiesler et al.

    Conformity

    (1969)
  • J.R. Larson et al.

    Diagnosing groups: The pooling, management, and impact of shared and unshared case information in team-based medical decision making

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1998)

    • Cited by (70)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    Tel.: +1 617 258 6889; fax: +1 617 258 7579.

    View full text
    Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.