Employee silence and burnout in India: the mediating role of emotional intelligence
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-03-2018-0104 |
| Pages | 1045-1060 |
| Date | 04 June 2019 |
| Published date | 04 June 2019 |
| Author | Shalini Srivastava,Ajay K. Jain,Sherry Sullivan |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour,Global hrm |
Employee silence and burnout in
India: the mediating role of
emotional intelligence
Shalini Srivastava
Department of Organisational Behaviour,
Jaipuria Institute of Management Noida, Noida, India
Ajay K. Jain
Department of Human Behavior and Organization Development,
Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Gurugram, India, and
Sherry Sullivan
College of Business, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Although considerable research has been completed on employee voice, relatively few studies
have investigated employee silence. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between
employee silence and job burnout as well as the possible mediating role of emotional intelligence (EI) on the
silence-burnout relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper reports the findings of an empirical study based upon the
survey of 286 managers working in four different states in India. Correlational and mediated regression
analyses were performed to test four hypotheses.
Findings –Contrary to findings from studies conducted in Western countries in which employee silencewas
positively related to undesirable work outcomes, in this study, employee silence was negatively related to job
burnout. Additionally, results indicated that the relationship between employee silence and job burnout was
mediated by EI. These findings suggest the importance of considering country context and potential
mediating variables when investigating employee silence.
Practical implications –This study demonstrates how Indian employees may strategically choose
employee silence in order to enhance job outcomes.
Originality/value –This study is one of the few efforts to investigate employee silence in a non-western
country. This is first study that has examined the role of EI as a mediating variable of the relationship
between employee silence and job burnout in India.
Keywords Quantitative, Indian organizations, Job burnout, Emotional intelligence, Silence
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Employee silence, defined as “the withholding of any form of genuine expression about an
individual’s behavioral, cognitive, and/or affective evaluation of his or her organizational
circumstances to persons who are perceived to be capable of effecting change”(Pinder and
Harlos, 2001, p. 334), has been associated with many negative organizational and individual
outcomes (Grant, 2013; Morrison, 2014). At the organizational level, employ eesi lence has been
associatedwith reduced organizational performance (Madrid etal., 2015), innovation ( Morrison
and Milliken, 2000) and learning (Knoll an d Redman, 2016). At the individual level, employee
silence has been related to job dissatisfaction (Knoll and van Dick, 2012), negative attitudes
toward change (Nikolaou et al., 2011) and lower professional commitment (Morrison, 2011).
Most of the research on employee silence has been conducted in Western countries
(see Morrison, 2014, for a review). It is highly questionable, however, that findings from
studies conducted in countries characterized by low power distance (relatively equal
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 4, 2019
pp. 1045-1060
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-03-2018-0104
Received 22 March 2018
Revised 8 December 2018
Accepted 6 January 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors thank to Samitha Gillala for her assistance with an earlier version of this paper.
1045
Employee
silence and
burnout in
India
distribution of power) and high individualism, such as the USA, are generalizable to
countries with cultures characterized by high power distance (respect for the social
hierarchy) and collectivism (prioritizing the group over the individual), such as India
(Hofstede, 1983). For example, a recent study by Jain (2015) found that, contrary to findings
from Western countries, employee silence was positively related to the job satisfaction of
Indian workers. Jain’s findings underscore the need for additional research on employee
silence in countries that are culturally distinct from Western countries as well as the
examination of the possible benefits associated with employee silence (see also Kafetsios
and Gruda, 2018).
The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study answers repeated calls for research
on employee silence in non-Western countries (Agarwal and Bhargava, 2014; Hofstede,
1983; Kwon and Farndale, 2018; Morrison, 2014). Relatively few studies have been
completed on silence in India (see Jain, 2015; Mellahi et al., 2010; Rai and Agarwal, 2018, for
exceptions). Further research is needed to determine if study findings from Western
countries are in any way generalizable to India. Prior studies conducted in Western
countries have reported a negative relationship between employee voice and workplace
stress (Ng and Feldman, 2012), with scholars theorizing that employee silence may be
positively associated with increased employee stress (Brinsfield et al., 2009; Morrison, 2011;
Morrison and Milliken, 2000). This study contributes to the literature by using the
conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1988, 2002) to examine the theorized
relationship between employee silence and burnout within the country context of India.
Second, this study contributes to the literature on employee silence by integrating the
literatures on employee silence, job burnout and emotional intelligence (EI) to investigate
whether EI explains the relationship between employee silence and burnout. Because
individuals high in EI are able to assess and control their emotions in order to gain personal
and professional benefits (Austin et al., 2007; Jain, 2012; Kilduff et al., 2010), they may be
more adept at choosing when to use silence to reduce the negative outcomes of job burnout.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether EI mediates the
relationship between employee silence and job burnout.
In the following section of this paper, the literature on employee silence is briefly
reviewed. Next, several hypotheses regarding the relationship between employee silence
and job burnout, and the possible mediation of this relationship by EI, are proposed. Then,
the study’s methodology and sample are discussed as well as its findings. The paper closes
with a discussion of the study’s limitations and implications for future research.
Literature review
Research on employee silence is considered to be in the nascent stage of development
(Morrison, 2014). Although employee voice has been studied since the 1970s (Morrison,
2011), it was not until relatively recently that scholars began to explore the dynamics of
employee silence, with silence being defined as a unique construct, separate from voice
(Brinsfield, 2013; Donaghey et al., 2011; Morrison and Milliken, 2000). In arguing for the
distinctiveness of employee silence from voice, Morrison (2014) wrote that silence:
[…] is not merely a lack of speech, as not speaking can occur for many reasons, including having
nothing meaningful to convey. Rather, silence refers to not speaking up when one has a suggestion,
concern, information about a problem, or a divergent point of view that could be useful or relevant
to share (p. 174).
Studies have found that it is common for employees to choose to remain silent even when
they have relevant knowledge to convey. For example, 85 percent of the 40 professionals
interviewed by Milliken et al. (2003) reported remaining silent about a workplace concern.
Burris et al. (2010) found that less than 51 percent of Fortune 100 multinational employees
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