The Relationship Between Nurses' Communication Practices, Personality Traits and Organizational Silence Behavior

Abstract

The use of organizational silence has been described as an active and conscious action employed to deliberately withhold information about an organization. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of nurses' communication practices and personality traits on organizational silence behaviors. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 220 nurses. The survey contained questions concerning nurses’ individual/professional characteristics and their choices about whether or not to remain silent about issues in the workplace and it also contained the Organizational Silence Behavior Scale and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Descriptive statistics, and regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Nurses’ mean score of the Organizational Silence Behavior Scale was 2.6 (.81). Multiple regression analysis indicated that nurses' organizational silence behavior was negatively affected by the choice to remain silent when their relationships with colleagues were put at risk, when they felt they may be excluded if they expressed their opinions, when they did not believe that sharing their ideas would improve the unit, and when their personality trait was determined to be emotionally stable. Organizational silence behavior is influenced by the choice to remain silent and an emotionally stable personality type.