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This paper examines different perspectives on the broad umbrella term of organisational silence. It identifies ten perspectives on organisational silence from the previous literature on inquiries into failings of British National Health Service providers. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Using content analysis, it applies ten perspectives on organisational silence to the report of the inquiry into the Gosport Hospital.

There is some overlap between the perspectives in that they draw on the same authors, and stress similar issues. There is some evidence for most of the perspectives in the report, but some perspectives appear stronger than others. However, none of the perspectives seem to cover the full spectrum of behaviour and place differential emphasis on different processes. It is not clear whether all ten perspectives add independent analytical value. This suggests that some might be extended or combined with the umbrella term of organisational silence more fully opened.

This is the first study in healthcare to review perspectives on organisational silence and apply them to a case study.

There have been a plethora of social science studies of diasporas and immigrants in the USA. Research on Bosnian-Americans, however, has been relatively sparse. The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the first-generation Bosnian American's trauma and its transgenerational effects on the second generation.

Bosnian-Americans are a relatively recent immigrant community in the USA, as most of the first-generation immigrated between 1993 and 2002 due to the Bosnian War and its aftermath. This research paper studies second-generation Bosnians to understand transgenerational trauma and emotions carried from the Bosnian War. Through archival research and extended interviews, second-generation Bosnian-Americans were asked questions about Bosnian-American identity and their psychosocial adjustment including transgenerational trauma.

Analysis of the data shows that in the second generation, the psychosocial effects of the Bosnian War have partially been transmitted from the first generation. Understanding the complex constitution of diasporic second-generation identity is facilitated by connecting it to the traumatic backgrounds, life experiences and struggles of the first generation.

The main observation is that there is a transmission of trauma and emotions from the first generation to the second-generation Bosnian Americans, which can be clearly seen in the participants of this research. Forms of transgenerational trauma (e.g. silence) and transmission of emotions (e.g. trust, anger and emotional unavailability) have been a part of the second generation’s lives, which, in fact, shaped their identities and personalities (From my conclusion section).

The purpose of this chapter is twofold: to explore the difficulties and potential of turning to the perpetrator of sexual violence; and to track the affective economy of engaging with perpetrator accounts.

This chapter will consider one of the earliest feminist studies of incest, Sandra Butler’s (1978) Conspiracy of Silence: The Trauma of Incest, followed by an analysis of Philippe Bourgois’ (1995, 1996, 2004) ethnographic study of Puerto Rican crack dealers. These are important studies for the fact that both Butler and Bourgois let the men speak freely of their violence, which for the Puerto Rican cracker dealers include tales of gang rape.

The chapter endorses the need to study the perpetrator, arguing that it is imperative to ensure the demythologization of perpetrators. It finds also that feminists must explore how they will teach emotionally difficult material, and how they negotiate the legacy of radical feminism. The chapter concludes that there are times when politics requires little theoretical innovation, requiring instead a willingness to repeat known insights and to fight back with words.

This chapter has implications for classroom practice.

The value of this chapter is its demand to reconsider the doing of feminism in the classroom when the split between feminist theory and activism appears greater than ever.

There's a conspiracy of silence about the failure rate of major managerial change initiatives. Three‐quarters of the initiatives—reputable programs to manage quality, customer focus, teamwork, mergers, downsizing, and reengineering—have failed, according to a recent Arthur D. Little survey of a large number of European and U.S. companies across many industries.

Nearly four years have passed since the Bank of England closed down the London offices of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (SA) along with the majority of the BCC branches and affiliates in over 70 foreign jurisdictions. The exercise has been only partially successful, and details of the liquidation process remain shrouded in a ‘conspiracy of silence’.

Extracts from a recent speech by the President of the Engineering Industries Association. The importance of this speech is that it breaks the conspiracy of silence, self‐imposed on business leaders, which has prevented them from commenting freely on political matters in the cause of ‘avoiding confrontation’.

In Phoenix 19 we traced the development of worker participation in Britain which took place between 1971 and 1977: eight traumatic years of unmitigated disaster for British management, progressively fighting a rear‐guard action, throughout the entire period, against the encroachment of the bureaucratisation and the politicisation of management. We pick up the story again at that point.

Spotlights the existence of “invisible” chronic illness (ICI) in organizations and, in particular, how disclosure of these conditions presents a potentially traumatizing dilemma for affected individuals. “Damned if they do, damned if they do not”, the person with “invisible” chronic illness (PwICI) risks deviant labelling, stigmatization and discrimination if they disclose a stigmatizing condition, and real threats to physical and emotional well‐being if they do not. Arguments for and against disclosure are framed, with some notes underscoring the western capitalist philosophy that efficiency in organizations must predominate, regardless of the cost to the individual. The attention of management scholars and practitioners is drawn to the“pain of silence” at a time when chronic illness is increasing, yet little understanding of the working life of the PwICI exists.

This paper explores the reasons for the sometimes seemingly irrational and dysfunctional organisational behaviour within the NHS. It seeks to provide possible answers to the persistent historical problem of intimidating and negative behaviour between staff, and the sometimes inadequate organisational responses. The aim is to develop a model to explain and increase understanding of such behaviour in the NHS.

This paper is conceptual in nature based upon a systematic literature review. The concepts of organisational silence, normalised organisational corruption, and protection of image, provide some possible answers for these dysfunctional responses, as does the theory of selective moral disengagement.

The NHS exhibits too high a level of collective ego defences and protection of its image and self-esteem, which distorts its ability to address problems and to learn. Organisations and the individuals within them can hide and retreat from reality and exhibit denial; there is a resistance to voice and to “knowing”. The persistence and tolerance of negative behaviour is a corruption and is not healthy or desirable. Organisations need to embrace the identity of a listening and learning organisation; a “wise” organisation. The “Elephant in the room” of persistent negative behaviour has to be acknowledged; the silence must be broken. There is a need for cultures of “respect”, exhibiting “intelligent kindness”.

A model has been developed to increase understanding of dysfunctional organisational behaviour in the NHS primarily for leaders/managers of health services, health service regulators and health researchers/academics. Research, with ethical approval, is currently being undertaken to test and develop the conceptual model to further reflect the complexities of the NHS culture.

In late 1973 and early 1974, in the run‐up to the most traumatic general election of modern times, a democratically elected government was humiliated and brought down by carefully orchestrated industrial action. It is my belief that this event will come, in time, to be seen as a major turning point in our society, after which certain aspects of our national life will never be the same again. It was the start of a rapidly‐developing movement which surged through 1974 to 1977 when the steam was eventually taken out of it by the Labour Party losing its overall majority in Parliament. But it has, by now, already produced basic and irreversible shifts in Britain in respect of that complex area made up of work, employment and the way the country earns its living. Only recently has it begun to sink in how deep‐seated these changes are. One result, among many others, is that nowadays, except on very rare occasions, only the left, the trade unions and the TUC publicly express any opinion about this topic; alternative voices have been gradually silenced, not because of any deep‐laid plot but because those on whom the duty of advancing an alternative view would normally fall have opted out and lapsed into a punch‐drunk state, directly caused by the events of 1973–4. To say the least they have lost their nerve; some are somewhat petulant at the turn events have taken; others have just got nothing to say; and yet another group think it diplomatic to keep quiet and hope for things to improve.