IS SILENCE KILLING YOUR ORGANIZATION ??

Vicious Spiral of Silence

 Why So Silent?
• Organization's Rigid Structure –
Fall in line or you will be marginalized and made to feel irrelevant .
Example :- Ashok Khemka , IAS Haryana ; AI Pilot

• Pre-Assumption in the mind of Workers.

• Personality trait of not confronting a Difference

• Unanimity Pressure(Among same level managers) –

Fear that I will stand out and loose importance and status.
• Authoritative Boss – No Change Orientation

• Tendency to Appease the Boss –

“Make the person above you Love you , you will get the bonus.”

• Boss feeling the Pressure –

He feels uncomfortable in providing negative feedback to subordinates .
I remain silent. So what….???
• Silence costs the organization, the individual and relationships.

• Individual and relationships

- Negative Emotions
Anxiety, Anger, frustration and Resentment

-Disconnect in relationships

-Self-protective

-Fear of embarrassment or rejection

-A spiral of silence
• Organization
- Increased dissatisfaction. This increases turnover.
- New ideas are not voiced out.
- Withhold important information

The total
productivity and
efficiency of the
organization is
affected.
Vicious
Viciousto
toVirtuous
Virtuous
 What is needed?
• Individuals should have the courage to act
differently

• Executives should create an interaction-favoring

environment

• Take responsibility

• Focus on Bigger issue

• Set the tone for discussion

• Present new things

• Your boss needs you

• Never break the ice in the face of personal conflict

• Passivity is safer than action

• Act deviantly

• Deviantly doesn’t mean dysfunctionality

• We have little differences
• Ones which don’t have visible impact / long term
impact.
• Unimportant relationships
• Time it well
• Any deadlines
• Had a row / argument – arrange a talk
LAST BUT NOT THE
LEAST Its all based
on your
judgment