The social justice movement continues to influence organizational practices. With this movement has come the idea that “silence speaks volumes” or that choosing to not address injustice is harmful to minority groups. However, little research has investigated how silence unfolds in the workplace and impacts perceptions of those who stay silent. In this study, researchers (Birnbaum et al., 2024) conducted six studies to examine whether leaders’ silence really does “speak louder than words.”
EXPERIMENTS ON LEADER SILENCE
In the first study, online participants were asked to describe a time when their leader was silent and how they felt about it. The researchers found that this silence impacted how a leader was viewed by employees – for example, being viewed as a “coward.” The next few studies depicted leaders who spoke up on their own group’s issues (e.g., gender) but stayed silent about others’ issues (e.g., race). The researchers found that observers viewed this “selective” silence as intergroup bias, compared to leaders who stayed consistently silent.
In subsequent studies of online participants and business students, researchers were interested in how speaking up about an outgroup may have general positive benefits. They compared two scenarios: a White male leader who spoke up about racial issues but later stayed silent on women’s issues, versus the same leader who remained silent throughout. Interestingly, the former type of leader was seen as more supportive than the leader who stayed silent. The former was viewed as more supportive, as their past behavior demonstrated a general commitment to social justice and disadvantaged groups even when he didn’t speak up a second time.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Leaders should be aware of the costs of speaking up for their own identity group but staying silent for others. Speaking up can be a way to demonstrate care for employees who are different from them. The authors also note that the way in which leaders speak up is important – they should do so with knowledge, care, and good intentions.
Birnbaum, H. J., McClanahan, K. J., & Unzueta, M. (2024). Silence on injustices speaks Vols.: When and how silence impacts perceptions of managers. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication.
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