TY - JOUR
T1 - Employer silencing in a context of voice regulations
T2 - Case studies of non-compliance
AU - Hickland, Eugene
AU - Cullinane, Niall
AU - Dobbins, Tony
AU - Dundon, Tony
AU - Donaghey, Jimmy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - This article, drawing on the latest insights into organisational silence, considers how employers seek to withhold information and circumvent meaningful workplace voice when confronted with regulatory requirements. It offers novel theoretical insights by redefining employer silencing as characterised by the withholding of information and the restriction of workplace dialogue. In outlining three principal routes of non-compliance—avoidance, suppression, and neglect—we empirically illustrate the path to silence in the regulatory context of the European Union Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees. Rather than considering how employers utilised the regulations, as existing research considers, we look at how employers circumvented the regulatory space in three case studies in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the significant role of employer silencing as a tool for explaining this dynamic.
AB - This article, drawing on the latest insights into organisational silence, considers how employers seek to withhold information and circumvent meaningful workplace voice when confronted with regulatory requirements. It offers novel theoretical insights by redefining employer silencing as characterised by the withholding of information and the restriction of workplace dialogue. In outlining three principal routes of non-compliance—avoidance, suppression, and neglect—we empirically illustrate the path to silence in the regulatory context of the European Union Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees. Rather than considering how employers utilised the regulations, as existing research considers, we look at how employers circumvented the regulatory space in three case studies in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the significant role of employer silencing as a tool for explaining this dynamic.
KW - employers
KW - information and consultation
KW - regulation
KW - silence
KW - voice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079906671&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1748-8583.12285
DO - 10.1111/1748-8583.12285
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85079906671
SN - 0954-5395
VL - 30
SP - 537
EP - 552
JO - Human Resource Management Journal
JF - Human Resource Management Journal
IS - 4
ER -