Authenticity, employee silence, prohibitive voice, and the moderating effect of organisational identification

Knoll, M.; Van Dick, R.

Abstract

Authenticity is an important concept in positive psychology and has been shown to be related to well-being, health, and leadership effectiveness. The present paper introduces employee authenticity as a predictor of relevant workplace behaviors, namely employee silence and prohibitive voice. Converging evidence across two studies using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs demonstrates that when responding to hypothetical problematic workplace events (Study 1) or actual workplace experiences (Study 2), individual differences in employees’ authenticity predicted more self-reported voice behaviors and less silence that emanated from various motivations. Furthermore, authenticity scores consistently yielded predictive utility over and above the contribution of a broad set of individual and organization-based characteristics. Finally, organizational identification moderated the relation between authenticity and silence, such that for employees with high levels of identification, the relation between authenticity and silence was stronger.

Citation

Knoll, M., & Van Dick, R. (2013). Authenticity, employee silence, prohibitive voice, and the moderating effect of organisational identification. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(4), 346-360. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.804113

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 21, 2013
• Journal: Journal of Positive Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1743-9760
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-9779
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 346-360
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.804113
• Keywords: Authenticity, Character strengths, Employee silence, Organizational identification, Positive organizational behavior, Positive organizational scholarship, Voice
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1476303