Why employees slip into silence: Role of workplace conflict and bullying.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how workplace bullying mediates between workplace conflict and employee silence (acquiescent, quiescent, and pro-social silence). Data was collected from 430 employees of service-sector companies (IT and ITES). Structural equation modeling using bootstrap technique was applied for data analysis. The findings of this study confirm that workplace bullying partially mediates the relationship between workplace conflict and the three types of employee silence. The implications of this research work are beneficial for organizations in order to fathom the silence behavior of employees that arises due to conflict and bullying at workplace. Management should discourage any signs of conflict, curb bullying, and at the same time encourage the employees to raise their voices against their problems in a formal way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]