How do we understand worker silence despite poor conditions – as the actress said to the woman bishop

TY - JOUR

T1 - How do we understand worker silence despite poor conditions – as the actress said to the woman bishop

AU - Dean, Deborah

AU - Greene, Anne Marie

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by funds from: Leicester Business School, De Montfort University; Susanna Wesley Foundation, Roehampton University; and Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. Publisher Copyright: © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - This article considers the customary choice of silence over voice of two groups of UK workers – women clergy and women actors – who routinely tolerate poor quality conditions rather than express dissatisfaction. We argue that a key mediating factor is an expanded version of Hirschman’s (1970) concept of loyalty. The article considers how occupational ideologies facilitate loyalty as adaptation to disadvantage in ways that discourage voice, in framing silence as positive. Consequently, we also identify this type of loyalty as potentially salient in understanding silence in other occupations. A descriptive model comparing strength of occupational ideology and voicing of dissatisfaction is outlined, and through discussion of findings the article offers conceptual refinements of loyalty in accounting for worker silence.

AB - This article considers the customary choice of silence over voice of two groups of UK workers – women clergy and women actors – who routinely tolerate poor quality conditions rather than express dissatisfaction. We argue that a key mediating factor is an expanded version of Hirschman’s (1970) concept of loyalty. The article considers how occupational ideologies facilitate loyalty as adaptation to disadvantage in ways that discourage voice, in framing silence as positive. Consequently, we also identify this type of loyalty as potentially salient in understanding silence in other occupations. A descriptive model comparing strength of occupational ideology and voicing of dissatisfaction is outlined, and through discussion of findings the article offers conceptual refinements of loyalty in accounting for worker silence.

KW - calling

KW - clergy

KW - loyalty

KW - occupational ideologies

KW - voice

KW - women workers - actors

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027724601&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0018726717694371

DO - 10.1177/0018726717694371

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85027724601

SN - 0018-7267

VL - 70

SP - 1237

EP - 1257

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

IS - 10

ER -