Silenced by fear:: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work

doi:10.1016/j.riob.2009.07.002

Research in Organizational Behavior

Volume 29, 2009, Pages 163-193

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2009.07.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

In every organization, individual members have the potential to speak up about important issues, but a growing body of research suggests that they often remain silent instead, out of fear of negative personal and professional consequences. In this chapter, we draw on research from disciplines ranging from evolutionary psychology to neuroscience, sociology, and anthropology to unpack fear as a discrete emotion and to elucidate its effects on workplace silence. In doing so, we move beyond prior descriptions and categorizations of what employees fear to present a deeper understanding of the nature of fear experiences, where such fears originate, and the different types of employee silence they motivate. Our aim is to introduce new directions for future research on silence as well as to encourage further attention to the powerful and pervasive role of fear across numerous areas of theory and research on organizational behavior.

“If any human emotion is as old as our species it must, surely, be fear, and the end of its hold on us is not in sight.” (Scruton, 1986: 7)

Section snippets

Silence in organizations

Employee silence is defined here as the withholding of ideas, suggestions, or concerns about people, products, or processes that might have been communicated verbally to someone inside the organization with the perceived authority to act. Silence is thus foregoing opportunities for “challenging organizational citizenship behavior” (Van Dyne, Cummings, & McLean Parks, 1995). Though silence can be driven by multiple motives (Milliken et al., 2003, Van Dyne et al., 2003), we focus here on silence

Fear and workplace silence

Anyone who has experienced fear – from startle at the sight of a spider to fear of the shadowed dangers in a dark alley – can easily recall how this powerful, unpleasant emotion overwhelms one's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors (Kreitler, 2004). Fear is often accompanied by feelings of apprehension, foreboding, and helplessness (Rachman, 1990), and represents the body's natural protection against potential threat – whether physical or psychological (Dozier, 1998, MacDonald et al., 2005). As a

Origins of fear-based silence

In the previous section, we described the differential intensity of fear triggered by threat cues associated with different types of potential voice situations. In this section, we examine the types and origins of cues that signal threat in the first place. To develop a broader understanding of the reasons why individuals fear speaking up to authority, we explore the more distal evolutionary and learned origins of this fear. As reviewed below, fear of challenging authority has long been a

Overcoming fear-based silence

Thus far, we have argued for the persistent, resilient, and powerful influence of fear on employee workplace silence. Indeed, we believe fear is a far more common experience among employees faced with opportunities to speak up to authority figures than is widely recognized. An implication of this perspective, however, is that to challenge authority, employees must find a way to overcome the tendency to resort to silence. In short, individuals must be spurred to act courageously – that is, to

Discussion

Fear, a powerful and pervasive emotion, influences human perception, cognition, and behavior in ways and to an extent that we find underappreciated in much of the organizational literature. This chapter draws from a broad range of literatures, including evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and anthropology, to provide a fuller understanding of how fear influences silence in organizations. Our intention is to provide a foundation to inform future theorizing and research on fear's

Acknowledgments

We extend a special thanks to the ROB editors, Art Brief and Barry Staw, as well as to Ethan Burris, Dan Chiaburu, Russell Cropanzano, Stephen Humphrey, Vilmos Misangyi, Terrance Mitchell, Nathan Pettit, Michael Price, Sean Tucker, Glenda Fisk, Sean Martin, and members of the ORG seminar in the Management and Organization Department, Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University for feedback on earlier drafts.

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ReviewSilenced by fear:: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work

Abstract

Section snippets

Silence in organizations

Fear and workplace silence

Origins of fear-based silence

Overcoming fear-based silence

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Evolution and Human Behavior

Behaviour Research and Therapy

In search of the right touch: Interpersonal assertiveness in organizational life

Current Directions in Psychological Science

What breaks a leader: The curvilinear relation between assertiveness and leadership

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

The Emperor's New Clothes

Fear as a strategy: Effects and impact within the organization

Journal of European Industrial Training

The behavioural biology of aggression

Championing charged issues: The case of gender-equity within organizations

Out on a Limb: The role of context and impression management in selling gender-equity issues

Administrative Science Quarterly

Speaking up and speaking out: The leadership dynamics of voice in organizations

What happens when verbal threat information and vicarious learning combine?

Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy

Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change

Psychological Review

Social foundations of thought and action

Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective

Annual Review of Psychology

The whisperings within: Evolution and the origin of human nature

Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams

Administrative Science Quarterly

Effect of parents’ job insecurity on children's work beliefs and attitudes

Journal of Applied Psychology

Anxiety and its disorders

The functions of the executive

The affective revolution in organizational behavior: The emergence of a paradigm

Bad is stronger than good

Review of General Psychology

Social rejection can reduce pain and increase spending: Further evidence that money, pain, and belongingness are interrelated

Psychological Inquiry

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachment as a fundamental human motivation

Psychological Bulletin

Child care practices anteceding three patterns of preschool behavior

Genetic Psychology Monographs

Toward an understanding of the determinants of anger

Emotion

Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness

Defensive behaviors, fear, and anxiety

Psychophysiological methods

On not blowing the whistle: Quiescent silence as an emotion episode

Spirals of silence: The dynamic effects of diversity on organizational voice

Journal of Management Studies

The impact of identity orientation on individual and organizational outcomes in demographically diverse settings

Academy of Management Journal

Organizational behavior: Affect in the workplace

Annual Review of Psychology

The moderating effect of self-esteem in reaction to voice: Converging evidence from five studies

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Acquisition of the algorithms of social life: A domain-based approach

Psychological Bulletin

Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today?

American Psychologist

Quitting before leaving: The mediating effects of psychological attachment and detachment on voice

Journal of Applied Psychology

The contribution of self-efficacy beliefs to dispositional shyness: On social-cognitive systems and the development of personality dispositions

Journal of Personality

Should I do it or not? An initial model of cognitive processes predicting voice behaviors

Barriers to nurses’ reporting of medication administration errors in Taiwan

Journal of Nursing Scholarship

Cultural specificity in amygdala responses to fear faces

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

The development of anxiety: The role of control in the early environment

Psychological Bulletin

Does perceived unfairness exacerbate or mitigate interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors related to envy?

Journal of Applied Psychology

Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Evolutionary psychology and the emotions

Review
Silenced by fear:: The nature, sources, and consequences of fear at work