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A workplace bullying dynamic involving multiple individuals targeting victims can lead to the victim losing emotional bonds or affect-based trust with their colleagues, resulting in employee silence. The literature has largely ignored this negative aspect of social dynamics. This study aims to examine the relationship between workplace bullying and employee silence behaviors and determine whether affect-based trust mediates this relationship and whether climate for conflict management moderates the mediated relationship.

Hypotheses are tested using surveys and scenario-based experiments among faculty members in Indian Universities. There were 597 participants in the survey and 166 in the scenario-based experiment.

Results revealed that workplace bullying correlated positively with silence behaviors, and affect-based trust mediated the bullying-silence relationship. The hypothesized moderated mediation condition was partially supported as moderated the mediating pathway, i.e. indirect effects of workplace bullying on defensive silence and ineffectual silence via affect-based trust were weaker for employees with high climate for conflict management. However, the study failed to support the moderation of climate for conflict management in the relationship between workplace bullying and affect-based trust and workplace bullying and relational silence. The results of this moderated effect of climate for conflict management were similar in both studies.

This study is one of the few attempts to examine employee silence in response to workplace bullying in academia. Additionally, the study revealed a critical area of trust depletion associated with bullying and the importance of employee perceptions of fairness toward their institutions’ dispute resolution processes.

This study aims to examine the effect of supervisor developmental feedback on employee silence behaviour by developing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of role breadth self-efficacy and high activated positive affect underpinning the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee silence behaviour, and the moderating role of interdependent self-construal.

The two-wave survey was conducted among 265 employees. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test the mediation and moderation mediation hypotheses.

Results indicated that high activated positive affect mediated the negative relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee silence behaviour. The authors also found that interdependent self-construal moderated the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and role breadth self-efficacy, as well as the indirect effect of supervisor developmental feedback on employee silence behaviour via role breadth self-efficacy.

This empirical study provides preliminary evidence of the mediating role of breadth self-efficacy and high activated positive affect in the negative relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee silence behaviour. The moderated mediation results further show that the mediation of role breadth self-efficacy between supervisor developmental feedback is contingent on individual interdependent self-construal, such that the mediation effect is significant among individuals with high interdependent self-construal, but the mediation effect of high activated positive effect is independent of individual interdependent self-construal. The findings further extend boundary conditions (interdependent self-construal) that may constrain the effect of supervisor developmental feedback on role breadth self-efficacy and high activated positive affect. The research makes considerable contributions to the cognitive-affective personality system theory by specifying the cognitive and affective mechanisms between supervisor developmental feedback and employee silence behaviour, as well as the boundary conditions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of organizational cynicism on prosocial voice and defensive silence and to verify the mediating role of workplace bullying in these relationships.

A cross-sectional survey design with a sample of 205 individuals was used in this study.

The hypotheses were confirmed as organizational cynicism plays a significant and negative influence on prosocial voice and a significant and positive influence on defensive silence. In addition, workplace bullying partially mediates both relationships.

This study contributes to a deeper understanding of organizational cynicism and workplace bullying influences on prosocial voice and defensive silence. It investigates a relationship that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has not been studied yet. It also contributes to the discussion regarding the close relationship between prosocial voice and defensive silence.

Drawing on social exchange literature, this study explores the mediating role of affective commitment between employees' assessments of contract breaches and opportunistic silence, along with the invigorating effect of hostile attribution bias.

We tested the hypotheses using multi-wave data collected from employees working in higher education institutions in Pakistan.

Perceived contract breaches elicit intentional, selfish and retaliatory motives of silence, largely because employees lack emotional attachments to their organization. This mechanism is more prominent among employees who tend to blame others and perceive them as antagonistic even when they are not.

For human resource managers, this investigation highlights a crucial feature – affective commitment – by which employees' perceptions of psychological contract breaches facilitate opportunistic silence. Our results suggest that this process is more likely to intensify when employees have distorted thinking, motivating them to attribute the worst motives to their employer's actions.

Perceived contract breaches within universities can have far-reaching societal consequences, affecting trust, reputation, economic stability, and the overall quality and accessibility of education and research. Addressing and preventing such breaches is essential to maintaining the positive societal role of universities.

This study provides novel insights into the process that underlies the connection between perceived contract breach and opportunistic silence by revealing the hitherto overlooked role of employees' hostile attribution bias, which renders them more susceptible to experiencing unfavorable forms of social exchange.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between toxic leadership and exit, prosocial voice, neglect and defensive silence. Second, this study investigates the mediating role of loyalty in these relationships.

A cross-sectional survey design with a sample of 544 individuals was used in this study.

The results suggested that toxic leadership positively influences exit, defensive silence and neglect and negatively influences prosocial voice. In addition, loyalty was found to be a partial mediator of the studied relationships.

This study addresses different theoretical debates, namely, loyalty as an attitude or behavior and its role in individuals’ responses and the relationship between silence and voice.

Neste estudo, pretendeu-se analisar a relação entre a liderança tóxica e a saída, voz prosocial, negligência e silêncio defensivo. Foi também investigado o papel mediador da lealdade nestas relações.

Foi realizado um estudo transversal com uma amostra de 544 participantes.

Os resultados sugerem que a liderança tóxica influência positivamente a saída, o silêncio defensivo e a negligência. Sugerem também uma influência negativa da liderança tóxica na voz prosocial. Adicionalmente, verificou-se que a lealdade é uma mediadora parcial nestas relações.

Este estudo aborda diferentes debates teóricos, nomeadamente a lealdade como atitude ou comportamento, o seu papel nas respostas dos indivíduos e a relação entre silêncio e voz.

En este estudio, nos proponemos analizar la relación entre el liderazgo tóxico y la salida, la voz prosocial, la negligencia y el silencio defensivo. En segundo lugar, investigamos el papel mediador de la lealtad en estas relaciones.

En este estudio se utilizó un diseño de encuesta transversal con una muestra de 544 individuos.

Los resultados sugirieron que el liderazgo tóxico influye positivamente en la salida, el silencio defensivo y la negligencia e influye negativamente en la voz prosocial. Además, la lealtad resultó ser un mediador parcial de las relaciones estudiadas.

Este estudio aborda diferentes debates teóricos, a saber, la lealtad como actitud o comportamiento y su papel en las respuestas de los individuos y la relación entre silencio y voz.

Based on interviews with 27 victims’ family members and survivors, this chapter explores how memory of the Oklahoma City bombing was constructed through participation in groups formed after the bombing and participation in the trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. It first addresses the efficacy of a collective memory perspective. It then describes the mental context in which interviewees joined groups after the bombing, the recovery functions groups played, and their impact on punishment expectations. Next, it discusses a media-initiated involuntary relationship between McVeigh and interviewees. Finally, this chapter examines execution witnesses’ perceptions of communication with McVeigh in his trial and execution.

The French film I’ve Loved You for So Long (2008) raises intriguing questions about the tension between silence and speech. It centers on an accused woman who has chosen to give no explanation in words about the motive for her criminal act. Her silence worsens her punishment and renders it harder to rebuild her life after her release from prison. This essay proposes seeing this silence as a critique of law. It aims to challenge our understanding regarding the different kinds of silence before the law and to assess the practical consequences arising from the decision of legal subjects to remain silent.

This chapter focusses on travellers’ pursuit of silence. This quest may be a counteraction to the current invasion of noise in everyday life. Silence has become something rare, unique and exclusive – which conveys luxury in its pristine and simplest form. The study focussed on silence in the setting of a church, which is a place typically intrinsically attached to silence. A qualitative semi-structured study was designed to explore how churches’ atmospheres contribute to the experience of silence, as well as what such moments of silence mean to the contemporary traveller. Silence in a church is very much defined by the place itself. For the traveller, silence is (1) a code of conduct, (2) an inner state, (3) a break, (4) an empowering experience and (5) a precious moment. The findings of this study can be used to promote moments of silence for weary travellers in the need of quiet.

This research aims to examine the ways and the extent to which social media platforms undermine the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of diverse voices and opinions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of closed groups focused on non-consensus topics.

Facebook closed group members perceive the media as isolating and portraying their issues negatively. However, these groups offer support, inclusion and non-judgmental opinion-sharing space. Consequently, members feel more comfortable discussing and sharing the topic outside the group, indicating a slight trend of challenging and undermining the spiral of silence through social networks.

The study faces challenges in comparing diverse groups due to unique circumstances, complex needs and societal attitudes. Each group stands alone, potentially yielding slightly different findings.

Social media challenges and undermines the spiral of silence, as these opinions are shared with the wider society and can even find their way back to mainstream media outlets. Thus, social media platforms play a significant role in disrupting the spiral of silence and facilitating the expression of diverse opinions that may have been previously suppressed.

This research emphasizes the critical role of social media in shaping public opinion and its interaction with the broader media landscape, illustrating a circular process where social media disrupts the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of previously suppressed diverse opinions, which can then potentially influence mainstream media.

This study adds value by exploring how social media platforms can challenge and undermine the spiral of silence, enabling the expression of diverse, marginalized and underrepresented opinions in society. It highlights the role of social media in shaping public opinion and discourse, challenging the dominance of traditional media. Its originality emanates from its revelations concerning the legitimization of conversational topics, which may consequently affect media agendas.