When in doubt, shut up.

When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.

An organizational culture with an innovation mindset should not muffle its collaborators. Yet too many employees are afraid to speak out.
In fact, only about one in five dares to “always speak out.” That is about the same share of employees that feels “only sometimes” it is safe speak out. Nearly half of the employees speak out “only most of the time;” but then, large majorities are not known to say anything controversial.

Except for a slight suggestion that UCD respondents may be more afraid that others to speak out – or face greater sanctions (2% as against 5% say “Never”) these shares are remarkably stable. Both pie charts reflect the responses of MBA students at Anglophone programs. The first pie chart reflects the opinion in 2007 of mostly London Business School MBA alumni, where close to one third were American; while the second pie chart reflects opinions culled recently (2010) among 25 MBA students from Dublin, about two thirds of which were Irish, the rest were mostly other Europeans. Results for Brazilian FIA students (2008) as befits a more hierarchical society, showed a larger reticence to speak out but the sample of actual employees, not themselves bosses, was too small to compare with the other two samples



These shares are remarkably stable. Both pie charts reflect the responses of MBA students at Anglophone programs. The first pie chart reflects the opinion in 2007 of mostly London Business School MBA alumni, about one third of respondents were American; while the second pie chart reflects opinions culled recently (2010) among 25 Irish MBA students from Dublin. Results for Brazilian FIA students (2008) as befits a more hierarchical society, showed a larger reticence to speak out but the sample of actual employees, not themselves bosses, was too small to compare with the other two.


Why would so many be afraid to speak out?

Self preservation may have a lot to do with it. An in-depth study, also with close to 200 employees, (Detert and Edmondson, 2007) suggests that it is not speaking about problems that employees are most afraid of; problems are too objective to dismiss.
What employees withhold the most are suggestions for innovation. These carry a greater deal of uncertainty regarding the benefits to be accrued from speaking out; while they are certain to expose the employee who makes the suggestion. When in doubt, shutting up seems the safest route.
Detert and Edmonson suggest that the employees´ fears may be based only on no more than perceptions, or company myths, like stories of people disappearing sometime after making a suggestion.
Whether the myths are not more than myths, or not; a culture of fear helps only the surfacing of the bravest, not the brightest.
CEOs, when not bullies themselves, should do better by establishing a culture of glasnost rather than the gulag.



Reference.
James R. Detert, Amy C. Edmondson. Why Employees Are Afraid to Speak. Harvard Business Review. May 01, 2007. Prod. #: F0705B-PDF-ENG , pages 23-25.


Alfredo Behrens
The author is Professor of Leadership and Cross-Cultural Management at FIA, International MBA,
São Paulo, also the author of Culture and Management in the Americas, Stanford University Press, 2009; and of the manuscript “Shooting Heroes and Rewarding Cowards” to appear later in 2010. A presentation of the book can be seen at http://bit.ly/95aLM9
Contact: email me at ab*@*alfredobehrens.com after removing the *s.