Smell of silence - Psychological contract breach as a mediator between workplace bullying and employee silence

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the association between workplace bullying and employee silence along with the mediating effect of psychological contract breach (PCB). Three types of silence – acquiescent, defensive and pro-social have been taken into consideration. The data for this research was collected from 430 respondents from various services sector of India. The result shows that workplace bullying significantly impacts employee silence while psychological contract breach partially mediates the association between bullying and silence at workplace. This research is one of the few studies especially in Asian countries where the three factors, bullying, PCB and silence have been taken for study. This study also becomes crucial as different dimensions of silence have been considered rather than taking employee silence as a whole. This research work could be an alarm bell for organizations where mistreatments like bullying is rampant and silence among employees is observed.