Effect of Fear of Negative Evaluation of Employees on Organizational Silence

Abstract

Employees, when encountered to a problem or an opportunity, may consciously exhibit silence behavior in order to protect themselves from harm and danger that may arise and to avoid from being excluded and being worthless. The main purpose of the research is to examine the effect of employees’ fear of negative evaluation on their organizational silence levels. The population of the research consists of 120 employees working in a public institution located in Kastamonu province city center. “Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale” and “Organizational Silence Scale” were used in the research. The internal consistency analyses of the scales were examined with Cronbach Alpha and found over 70%. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis results of the scales showed good fit values. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted for understanding the relationships between variables. When the findings of the research are evaluated; there appears to be a strong, significant and positive relationship between the fear of negative evaluation and organizational silence and its subdimensions (acquiescent silence and defensive silence). However, no relation is observed between the prosocial silence.