Home Articles References
Research Article

The Effects of Turnover Intentions and Social Status on Employee Silence

Kim Min Jeong, Hongseok Oh, Jeehye Park

Chonnam National University
Yonsei University
Yonsei University

Published: January 2023 · Vol. 52, No. 3 · pp. 649-678

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2023.52.3.649

Full Text PDF

Abstract

Despite growing research interest in employee silence-the conscious withholding of information, suggestions, or concerns about potentially important work-related issues, our understanding of its antecedents is still limited. Reflecting recent calls for research on the exploration of the active, conscious, and intentional aspects of employee silence, we proposed turnover intentions, which account for employees’ withdrawal and psychologically detaching attitude, as its antecedent. Drawing on the social exchange theory, we examined the effects of employees’ turnover intentions on silence and the moderating effects of social status in this relationship. Using data from 201 employees belonging to 43 work groups within 27 organizations, we showed that employees with stronger intentions to leave the organization tended to more engage in silence. We also found that social status variables including rank and friendship network centrality moderated the relationship between turnover intentions and employee silence such that the relationship was stronger when employees were higher in their formal ranks in organizations or were more central in the informal friendship networks.
Keywords: Employee SilenceTurnover IntentionsRankNetwork CentralityStatus