The Reasons of Academic Staff Silence and Its Effect on Their University

The importance of human resources in increasing efficiency and quality of organizations is continuously growing in the information age. Employees' contributing to decisions taken within organizations, enabling them to express their ideas as well as participating in the realization of those ideas is considered important for the development of organizations. The process of improvement may be hindered in the organizations where employees have a negative attitude and remain silent. This situation may have negative impact on both the employee and the organization. Particularly, in the universities that are expected to take up a leading role in the development of the society, the academic staff has a significant part to play. The academic staff that is not able to express their ideas openly may be a big obstacle in the path of development. That's why, it is important to identify the existence of the silence and put forward suggestions that may help minimize the problem. The purpose of this study is to determine the situations when the academic staff remains silent, the factors that make them remain silent and the impact these issues may have on both the individuals and the organizations. To this end, answers to the following questions were sought: What are the issues and situations when the academic staff decides to be silent? What are the reasons that make the academic staff remain silent? What are the effects, positive or negative, of the organizational silence? Method: In this study, qualitative research technique was used. In this research, purposive sampling pathway was carried out. Working group consists of 14 academic staff (teaching assistants, research assistants, and instructors) working at two universities. In this study, semi-structured interview technique as data collecting method was used. Interviews were recorded with voice recorder and then analyzed. Results: According to the results of the study, academic staff chooses to be silent when they are treated unfairly and when they issues they raise are considered unimportant. The results of the study reveal that there are various reasons for the academic staff to remain silent, such as: employee's personality, his or her family and his or her attitude; administrative: administrators attitude and personality; organizational: organizational climate and culture. The academic staff interviews indicated that as a result of remaining silent, they feel that they lose motivation, their effectiveness at work decrease and being silent has a negative psychological effect too. Moreover, due to organizational silence, the work is done at a slower pace, there is more gossip and the organization affected negatively due to lack of new ideas and closeness to improvement. The findings of the study suggest that academic staff remains silent in a number of situations. The reasons why the staff remains silent can be divided into individual, organizational and administrative. It was indicated that being silent has various negative effects both on the academic staff and the organization. Suggestions: In the light of the study, suggestions to minimize organizational silence are as follows: Administrators should show the employees that their ideas and suggestions are valued and implemented when necessary. In regulations and laws, job descriptions of academic staff, especially research assistants, should be clearly defined. Academic staff should have more legal rights, for instance having right to vote in rector elections. Different opinions should be taken into consideration; participation should be promoted in the organization. Expectations from the staff should be clearly expressed. The staff should know what their job is and what isn't and be able to stand for their rights accordingly. These suggestions are presented for the next studies: It can be useful to investigate the relationship between organizational silence and job satisfaction, employees' intent to leave, motivation and numerous factors important for individuals and organizations. Also it can be useful to expand studies in different organization. In the next studies factors that affect organizational silence can be researched. 

Günümüz bilgi çağında örgütlerin verimlilik ve kalitesinin artırılmasında çalışanların fikirlerini, önerilerini dile getirmelerinin ve alınan kararlarlara katılmalarının etkisi vardır. Aksi takdirde kasti olarak önerilerini dile getirmeyip sessiz kalan çalışanlara sahip örgütler var olacaktır. Bu durum da hem örgüte hem de bireye zarar verecektir. Yapılan bu çalışmada üniversitelerde öğretim elemanlarının sessiz kaldıkları durumlar, sessiz kalma sebepleri bunun örgüte ve bireye etkileri incelenmiştir. Çalışmada nitel araştırma desenlerinden durum çalışması tercih edilmiştir. İki üniversitede görev yapan 14 öğretim elemanı ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapılan analizler sonucunda öğretim elemanlarının genelde kendilerine haksızlık yapılması durumunda, fikir sorulmadan verilen kararların uygulanmasında, fazladan iş yükü getirecek durumlarda, önceden görüş bildirip bir yaptırımın olmadığı durumlarda, fikirlerini açıklamayıp sessiz kaldıklarını gözlenmiştir. Bireysel, yönetsel ve örgütsel sebeplerden dolayı sessiz kaldıkları ve bunun hem kendilerine hem de örgüte olumsuz etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Bulgular sonucunda öğretim elemanlarının sessiz kalma durumlarını en aza indirecek öneriler sunulmuştur.