Distinguishing voice and silence at work: Unique relationships with perceived impact, psychological safety, and burnout

Scholars continue to debate whether voice and silence are opposites or distinct constructs. This ambiguity has prevented meaningful theoretical advancements about employees’ voice and silence at work. We draw on the behavioral activation and
behavioral inhibition systems perspective to provide a conceptual framework for the
independence of voice and silence and explicate how two key antecedents—perceived
impact and psychological safety—more strongly relate to voice and silence, respectively. We further differentiate voice and silence by identifying their distinct effects on
employee burnout. In Study 1, a meta-analysis, we demonstrate that voice and silence
are independent (Mr 5 2.15) and that perceived impact (psychological safety) relates
more strongly to voice (silence) than to silence (voice). We also find that silence has a
significantly stronger association with burnout compared to voice. In Study 2, we constructively replicate these findings in an interval-contingent panel study across six
months. Taken together, this article helps shift the conversation of whether voice and
silence are distinct constructs to how they differ and why such differences matter.