Exploring the Causes of Organizational Silence among Teachers at Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Sharing ideas, knowledge and information by employees are having pertinent importance for organizational leaders to gain an in-depth understanding of issues to elevate the performance. However, silence among employees yield adverse impact, therefore, current study was opted to explore causes of silence among teachers of secondary schools. Secondary school teachers were the unit of analysis and hence forth constituted the population of study. Data were collected through cross sectional survey using questionnaire. Quantitative data was collected from a sample of 446 teachers of secondary schools, qualitative data was collected from 25 secondary school teachers. The frequency of open ended and analysis of interview responses from secondary school teachers regarding the reasons for their silence revealed that the leading reason for silence among teachers is the corrosive behavior exhibited by school heads. To break the silence, it was suggested that heads may eliminate the reasons for silence and may create a welcoming atmosphere and many female teachers be allowed to share their thoughts without fear of repercussions.