Presenting a model for the formation of defensive silence among employees in state-owned banks: Analyzing antecedent and consequent elements using the FCM method

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Amirhoshang Nazarpouri ¹

Mohammad hakkak ¹

hojjat vahdati ¹

jafar abbaspour ²

¹ lu

² meli bank

https://doi.org/10.22067/tmj.2025.94320.1726

Abstract

Today, one of the complications that has taken root in organizations and causes numerous damages is a phenomenon called defensive silence. Defensive silence is recognized as a negative phenomenon prevalent in government organizations. In this state, employees purposefully refrain from providing ideas, information, and opinions related to the organization. Considering that this phenomenon is a significant obstacle to the effective performance of employees and the organization, and has hidden aspects and angles, the present study aimed to analyze the antecedent and consequent elements of defensive silence among employees in state-owned banks in Tehran province. This research is applied in terms of purpose and exploratory in terms of data collection. Also, this research is a mixed-methods study of both qualitative and quantitative types based on an inductive-deductive philosophy. The statistical population of the research consists of experts, including professors from Tehran universities and managers of state-owned banks in Tehran province, who were selected using purposive sampling based on the principle of theoretical sufficiency. The data collection tool in the qualitative section is a semi-structured interview, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed using content and theoretical validity, and the intra-coder and inter-coder reliability method. Also, the data collection tool in the quantitative section is a questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed using content validity and test-retest reliability. Qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis method and quantitative data were analyzed by fuzzy cognitive mapping method. The results of this study indicate that the components of employees’ conservative personality, the organization’s involvement in the black hole of politicization, and the application of silent expectation in employees are the most important antecedents of defensive silence among employees of state-owned banks. Also, the components of poverty in idea generation and erosion of creativity in the organization, the emergence of organizational irresponsibility, and the decline in individual and organizational productivity were identified as the most important consequences of defensive silence among employees of state-owned banks.

Keywords

Defensive Silence

State-Owned Banks

Antecedents and Consequences

Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping

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