Organizational Silence
In the article “Sounds of Silence” there have been studies that show that only 29% of first level managers felt their organization promoted freedom to express opinions. Many company’s have the issue of power where a leader makes others felt if they come to them with a problem or an opinion they do not agree with then punishment will be taken. When there is a lack of open communication it diminishes morale and work performance. It often puts a battle between what you are actually doing and what you know is right and should be doing.
In this economy I think we are seeing organizational silence more and more. The fact that jobs are so hard to come by it forces employees to compromise their values and often times they chose to do something they know isn’t right just because of the fear of losing their if they do whats right. Leaders are displaying the attitude if you don’t agree with me then you are wrong, so no one wants to challenge their power.
I have actually experienced this firsthand. I worked at a job where I knew customers were not happy, and it wasnt because I wasnt doing my job, it was because of the product or the customer service others in the company gave them. Yet the people in leadership positions made it perfectly clear if you came to them with an unhappy customer it was your fault and you better have a good explanation or someone else would be doing your job the next day. So because of this fear they spread in the office I forced to compromise by morals to save my job. In the end I ended up leaving because I was not happy with who I was becoming, all because my company didn’t allow personal expression or opinion.
It has been over a year since I left that company and as I look at the company now I see them falling apart, they are having to lay people off because they are losing customers left and right. Their turnover rate has almost doubled in the last year. Yet the management is still too much on a power trip to see the real reasons behind their fall. If they allow employees to have an opinion then many of these issues could have been resolved before they lost customers.
Jessica Plassmeyer 